The Mysteries of Kuru Cannibal Disease: Laughing Death

▶️ Healthline https://www.healthline.com/health/kuru
▶️ Kuru is a rare and fatal nervous system disease that occurred mainly 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 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 headaches and joint pain. Since these are common symptoms, they are often missed as clues that a more serious disease is underway.

First stage: A person with kuru exhibits some loss of bodily control. They may have difficulty balancing and maintaining posture.

Second stage: Also called the sedentary stage, the person is unable to walk. Body tremors and significant involuntary jerks and movements begin to occur.

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.

What are the causes of kuru?
Kuru belongs to a class of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also called prion diseases. It primarily affects the cerebellum — the part of your brain responsible for coordination and balance.

Unlike most infections or infectious agents, kuru is not caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi.

Infectious, abnormal proteins known as prions cause kuru. Prions are not living organisms and do not reproduce. They are inanimate, misshapen proteins that multiply in the brain and form clumps, hindering typical brain processes.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease, and fatal familial i