Kuru: The Disease with a 100% Mortality Rate.

The name Kuru comes from the Fore word for ‘shiver’ or ‘tremble’. The Fore people live in the forests of Papua New Guinea and were the first to expose this terrible disease to the world. Kuru is a type of prion disease, a degenerative disease that slowly misfolds proteins in the body. Once enough of these prions are activated, the disease takes over its host. Kuru is fatal; there is no cure and few ways to alleviate the symptoms. 

Symptoms of Kuru include poor coordination, difficulty walking, difficulty swallowing, dementia and behavioural changes. The disease progresses in three stages; by the third stage, sufferers cannot sit up, eat, drink or swallow on their own, leading to a grizzly death. Many of these symptoms mimic a stroke or other neurological disease, but unlike a stroke, Kuru is largely preventable. 

In the 1960s, anthropologists and scientists discovered that the women and children of the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea seemed to be the only ones afflicted by the disease. After spending years with the tribe, they discovered why. When a tribe member died, the women were tasked with preparing their bodies. They believed that the women and children needed to consume parts of the deceased in order for their spirits to ascend. 

The most common organ consumed by the Fore women and children was the brain. The brain would be removed, cooked and consumed in a ritual meant to release their spirit. Whilst the Fore people carried out their traditions, they had no idea of the chaos that was lurking around the corner. Soon, more and more people became afflicted by Kuru. 

In the West, the most common way of getting prion disease is through eating contaminated meat. CJD, Creutzfeldt-Jackob’s disease, is most commonly seen by neurologists. After many years of research, scientists found that sufferers had eaten meat contaminated with brain matter from cows. The spinal cord and brain were often mixed into final meat products in slaughterhouses; however, after the discovery of CJD, the practice was quickly banned. 

Kuru and other prion diseases are fatal, and the symptoms are rapid onset. Most sufferers will die 8 months after diagnosis, whilst some may survive for a year or two. Doctors can make a patient's final days more comfortable, but there is nothing they can do to stop the proteins from misfolding and scrambling your genetic data.