Kuru (disease)
| Subclass of | transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, disease  |
|---|---|
| Has cause | prion |
| Health specialty | infectious diseases, neurology |
| Medical examination | physical examination, magnetic resonance imaging, biopsy, histopathology |
| Possible treatment | symptomatic treatment |
| ICD-9-CM | 046.0 |
Kuru be a rare, incurable, den fatal neurodegenerative disorder wey na formerly be common among de Fore people of Papua New Guinea. E be a prion disease wich dey lead to tremors den loss of coordination from neurodegeneration. De term kúru dey mean "trembling" wey e dey cam from de Fore word kuria anaa guria ("to shake").[1][2] E sanso be known as "laughing sickness" secof abnormal bursts of laughter wich dey occur.
Na dem spread am among de Fore people via funerary cannibalism. Na dem traditionally cook den chop deceased family members, wich na dem think e dey help free de spirit of de dead.[3] Na women den kiddies children usually eat de brain, wer na infectious prions be most concentrated, wey therefore dem be more commonly affected.
Na de outbreak likely start wen na a villager develop sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease wey e die. Wen na villagers chop de brain, dem contract de disease wey then dem spread am to oda villagers wey chop dema infected brains.[4]
While na de Fore people stop dey chop human meat insyd de early 1960s, wen na dem first speculate dis as de cause, de disease linger secof kuru ein long incubation period of anywer from 10 to over 50 years.[5] Na cases finally decline after half a century, from 200 deaths per year insyd 1957 to no deaths from at least 2010 onward, plus de last known death insyd 2005 anaa 2009.[6][7][8][9]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Hoskin, J.O.; Kiloh, L.G.; Cawte, J.E. (April 1969). "Epilepsy and guria: The shaking syndromes of New Guinea". Social Science & Medicine. 3 (1): 39–48. doi:10.1016/0037-7856(69)90037-7. PMID 5809623.
- ↑ Scott, Graham (1978). The Fore Language of Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics. pp. 2, 6. doi:10.15144/PL-B47. hdl:1885/146489. ISBN 978-0-85883-173-5.
- ↑ Whitfield, Jerome T; Pako, Wandagi H; Collinge, John; Alpers, Michael P (27 November 2008). "Mortuary rites of the South Fore and kuru". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 363 (1510): 3721–3724. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0074. PMC 2581657. PMID 18849288.
- ↑ Bichell, Rae Ellen (September 6, 2016). "When People Ate People, A Strange Disease Emerged". NPR.org (in English). Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ↑ "Kuru". MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
- ↑ Alpers, MP (2007). "A history of kuru". Papua and New Guinea Medical Journal. 50 (1–2): 10–9. PMID 19354007.
- ↑ Rense, Sarah (September 7, 2016). "Here's What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Human Meat". Esquire.
- ↑ "A life of determination". Monash University — Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. 2009-02-23. Archived from the original on 2015-12-10. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ↑ Collinge, John; Whitfield, Jerome; McKintosh, Edward; Beck, John; Mead, Simon; Thomas, Dafydd J; Alpers, Michael P (June 2006). "Kuru in the 21st century—an acquired human prion disease with very long incubation periods". The Lancet. 367 (9528): 2068–2074. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68930-7. PMID 16798390. S2CID 11506094.
External links
[edit | edit source]
- Sam Kean. The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, "Chapter 6: The Laughing Disease", 2014. (Detailed scientific and political history.)