It's Kuru-ific!

Kuru

Symptoms

Causes

Diagnosis

Treatment

Outlook

Prevention

What is kuru?

Kuru is a rare and fatal nervous system disease. Its highest prevalence occurred during the 1950s and 1960s among the Fore people in the highlands of New Guinea. The Fore people contracted the disease by performing cannibalism on corpses during funeral rituals.

The name kuru means “to shiver” or “trembling in fear.” The symptoms of the disease include muscle twitching and loss of coordination. Other symptoms include difficulty walking, involuntary movements, behavioral and mood changes, dementia, and difficulty eating. The latter can cause malnutrition. Kuru has no known cure. It’s usually fatal within one year of contraction.

The identification and study of kuru helped along scientific research in a number of ways. It was the first neurodegenerative disease resulting from an infectious agent. It led to the creation of a new class of diseases including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease, and fatal familial insomnia. Today the study of kuru still impacts research on neurodegenerative diseases.

What are the symptoms of kuru?

Symptoms of more common neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or stroke may resemble kuru symptoms. These include:

difficulty walking

poor coordination

difficulty swallowing

slurred speech

moodiness and behavioral changes

dementia

muscle twitching and tremors

inability to grasp objects

random, compulsive laughing or crying

Kuru occurs in three stages. It’s usually preceded by headache and joint pain. Since these are common symptoms, they are often missed as clues that a more serious disease is underway. In the first stage, a person with kuru exhibits some loss of bodily control. They may have difficulty balancing and maintaining posture. In the second stage, or sedentary stage, the person is unable to walk. Body tremors and significant involuntary jerks and movements begin to occur. In the third stage, the person is usually bedridden and incontinent. They lose the ability to speak. They may also exhibit dementia or behavior changes, causing them to seem unconcerned about their health. Starvation and malnutrition usually set in at the third stage, due to the difficulty of eating and swallowing. These secondary symptoms can lead to death within a year. Most people end up dying from pneumonia.

https://www.healthline.com/health/kuru#symptoms