Abstract
The epidemic of kuru is now known to have been transmitted among the Fore by ritual consumption of infected organs from deceased relatives. As cannibalism was suppressed by government patrol officers during the 1950s, most transmission had ceased by 1957, when the kuru research programme first commenced. As predicted in the 1960s, the epidemic has waned, with progressive ageing of kuru-affected cohorts over the years to 2007. The few cases seen in the twenty-first century, with the longest incubation periods, were almost certainly exposed as children prior to 1960. Although the research programme had almost no role in bringing the kuru epidemic to an end, it did provide important knowledge that was to help the wider world in controlling the later epidemics of iatrogenic and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Highlights
In their invitation letter for the 2007 meeting, John Collinge and Michael Alpers wrote: ‘The epidemic of kuru may not be entirely over but the end is certainly in sight, with at most only one death expected during the year
As cannibalism was suppressed by government patrol officers during the 1950s, most transmission had ceased by 1957, when the kuru research programme first commenced
The research programme had almost no role in bringing the kuru epidemic to an end, it did provide important knowledge that was to help the wider world in controlling the later epidemics of iatrogenic and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Summary
In their invitation letter for the 2007 meeting, John Collinge and Michael Alpers wrote: ‘The epidemic of kuru may not be entirely over but the end is certainly in sight, with at most only one death expected during the year. Ronald and Catherine Berndt record first accounts of kuru sorcery first reports of kuru from government patrol officers first cases of kuru examined at Goroka and Kainantu Hospitals Dr Vin Zigas sends blood samples and a brain to Melbourne Dr Carleton Gajdusek starts fieldwork with Zigas Bennett, Rhodes and Robson suggest a genetic aetiology for kurua Hadlow notes that kuru pathology is similar to scrapie Robert and Shirley Glasse report on recent time depth and spread of kuru, and suggest that cannibalism might be involved in transmission first transmission of kuru to chimpanzee by inoculation first transmission of CJD to chimpanzee by inoculation first oral transmission of kuru to spider monkeys a It was suggested that an autosomal gene was dominant in females, causing late onset female kuru in heterozygous women, and recessive in males, causing early onset kuru in homozygotes of both sexes. A chapter of my MD thesis (Mathews 1971) was devoted to the ethics and propriety of our research with the Fore
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