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Kuru Reviewed 7-31-2001 Get Web page suited for printing Email this to a friend or colleague Studies with patients Table of Contents (click to jump to sections) What is Kuru?Is there any treatment? What is the prognosis? What research is being done? Organizations Related NINDS Publications and Information What is Kuru? Kuru is a rare, degenerative, and fatal brain disorder that occurs primarily among the Fore natives in the highlands of New Guinea. The disease is thought to result from the practice of ritualistic cannibalism, in which relatives consume the tissues (including brain) of a deceased family member. Brain tissue from individuals with kuru is highly infectious, and can transmit the disease through either oral or peripheral routes of infection (e.g., cuts, sores). Cannibalism was prevalent before the 1960s, but government discouragement of the practice led to a continuing decline in the disease, which has now essentially disappeared. Kuru belongs to a class of infectious diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases. Other TSEs include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, fatal familial insomnia in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle (also known as mad cow disease), scrapie in sheep and goats, and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. “Prion” is the name given to an abnormal form of protein that appears to be able to cause more and more of its normal form to become malformed, eventually leading to deposits in cells of the central nervous system, and eventually killing these cells. Prion diseases are most easily transmitted by direct transfer of infected tissue to the CNS, although (like kuru) they can also be transmitted orally. Is there any treatment? What is the prognosis? What research is being done? Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) Foundation Inc.
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDCP)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) Related NINDS Publications and Information
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