Discovery of Kuru Revisited: How Anthropology Hindered Then Enhanced Kuru Research

Abstract

Kuru has probably spawned more papers and books than any other uncommon disease, and produced two Nobel laureates. This rapidly progressive and inevitably fatal neurological condition occurred only among people in the Okapa area of Papua New Guinea. It had an extraordinarily long incubation period. Genealogical studies determined that kuru probably appeared in the fi rst decade of the twentieth century and was spread by cannibalism. This paper reviews the chronological sequence of the earliest reports of kuru and documents how early fi xation on sorcery as the mechanism for the illness diverted attention from a medical description and discovery of the mode of transmission of the disease. A multidisciplinary approach by anthropologists, epidemiologists and microbiologists fi nally led to the elucidation of its aetiology. Only three thousand cases have been documented and there have been no cases reported since 2009.