Kuru is a type of prion disease, which includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy—commonly known as mad cow disease—and its variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which sickened humans who consumed ...

But it was the discovery of kuru, ravaging the Fore tribes of Papua New Guinea, that spurred the burst of scientific and public interest in prion diseases. Warwick Anderson, an Australian medical ...

Their findings appear in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kuru, a prion disease similar to CJD in humans and BSE in animals, was transmitted at mortuary feasts where - until the practice was ...

Today is Rare Disease Day, and to mark it, we're taking a look at one condition that killed all those who contracted it in a rather disturbing way.

This sometimes meant they consumed abnormally folded proteins, called prions, that can cause a fatal neurodegenerative condition called kuru – which is related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

As the brain contained the highest concentration of prions, those who consumed this part of the body were at most risk of developing kuru. Symptoms of kuru – which translates to "trembling" from ...