It was the first neurodegenerative disease resulting from an infectious agent. Today the study of kuru still impacts research on neurodegenerative diseases.
These include:. Kuru occurs in three stages. 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. 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 a bacteria, virus, or fungus. 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 normal brain processes. These spongiform diseases, as well as kuru, create sponge-like holes in your brain and are fatal. You can contract the disease by eating an infected brain or coming into contact with open wounds or sores of someone infected with it.
Kuru developed primarily in the Fore people of New Guinea when they ate the brains of dead relatives during funeral rites. Women and children were mainly infected because they were the primary participants in these rites. Learn more about our commitment to Global Medical Knowledge. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
Common Health Topics. Courtesy of. Prion Diseases. Test your knowledge. Bell palsy is sudden weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face due to malfunction of the seventh cranial nerve. This nerve moves facial muscles, stimulates salivary and tear glands, detects tastes, and controls a muscle involved in hearing.
Which of the following is often the first symptom of Bell palsy? More Content. No effective treatment is available. Treatment of kuru focuses on relieving symptoms. Was This Page Helpful? Yes No. See your health care provider if you have any walking, swallowing, or coordination problems.
Kuru is extremely rare. Your provider will rule out other nervous system diseases. Prions and prion disease of the central nervous system transmissible neurodegenerative diseases. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap Prion diseases.
Bradley and Daroff's Neurology in Clinical Practice. Updated by: Jatin M. Editorial team.
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