Kuru

Kuru is a disease classifed as a Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSEs) caused by prions. It was found among women and children in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea and was thought to be spread by a form of ritual funerary cannibalism where the brains of deceased relatives were eaten.

Kuru was first studied by the Nobel Prize winner Carleton Gajdusek[?]. As with all prion diseases it is always fatal, with the duration of illness lasting 3 to 12 months from the diagnosis of the first symptoms to death.