Abstract

It began in 1957 when I received via a colleague a batch of sera from kuru patients and some controls from Carleton Gajdusek. I was immensely excited, as was Carleton, when I found a quite remarkable elevation of some α and β globulin components in the kuru sera that seemed to be absent from the controls. However, our excitement cooled in the face of more data that indicated that the sera in question had come from very sick, malnourished people suffering from major intercurrent infections, decubitus ulcers and the like. That is, we were observing a reactive hyperglobulinaemia, an epiphenomenon rather than a finding central to kuru. My overreaction to the initial finding was almost certainly due to the fact that at the time I was very interested in the paraproteinaemias of myeloma and other malignancies of the immune system and was ready to put down our kuru findings to some unique dysproteinaemia. So, the first great lesson that dipping into kuru research taught me was that we see what we are trained to see.

Highlights

  • It began in 1957 when I received via a colleague a batch of sera from kuru patients and some controls from Carleton Gajdusek

  • The first genealogies collected in the field showed that the disease had a strong family association and, in their incomplete state, the data could reasonably be held to point to the existence of a Ku gene, possibly with its expression modified by a recently introduced environmental factor

  • The anglophile sensitivities of many in the medical establishment had been outraged that an American was playing on their pitch and they saw the existence of the Adelaide Group as an important expression of our concern for the welfare of the Fore people

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Summary

Introduction

It began in 1957 when I received via a colleague a batch of sera from kuru patients and some controls from Carleton Gajdusek. Some personal lessons from a brush with kuru research The first great lesson that dipping into kuru research taught me was that we see what we are trained to see.

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Conclusion

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