What is Kuru?

Kuru is among the fatal neurodegenerative prion protein (PrP) diseases in humans. Others include Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann–Straüssler–Scheinker (GSS) disease, fatal familial insomnia (FFI), and variant CJD (vCJD).

 

-- http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/220043-overview

 

Kuru affected the Fore (pronounced for-ay) linguistic group of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea and, to a lesser extent, neighboring groups with whom the Fore intermarried. The word kuru is derived from a term in the Fore language that means “to shake from fear” and stems from trembling as a conspicuous symptom of the disease.

Tags: Eastern H, Fore, Kuru