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Wei Shu-Tong
THE
MYSTERIES
OF
''KURUU
Kuru, or "trembling with fear"
is
a
progressive and fatal neurologic disor-
der which occurs exclusively among
natives
ol
the New Guinea Highland,
an
island
country
in
the
Pacific.
Diffi-
culty
in
walking
is usually the
first
sign
of
Kuru.
As the disease progress, cer-
ebellar involvement (intention tremor,
inability
to
perform rapid
alternating
movements,
slurring
of
speech,
hypotonia), abnormal involuntary move-
ments, resembling
myoclonus,
athetosis, or chorea, and convergent
strabismus
appear.
The
disease
teminates fatally
in
4lo
24
months.
Approximately 80 percent
of
adults
atficted with
the
disease are women.
The etiologic factor, the slow
vi-
rus, responsible for
this weird
disease
has
been delined
by
the American doc-
tor Gajdusck in
1957.
Cannibalism has
been considered as
a
possible
mode
of transmission
ol Kuru.
Native cus-
tom in New Guinea dictates
the
mar-
row, viscera,
and
brain be cooked and
eaten.
The marked predilection of
Kuru
for the adult women may be explained
by
the observation that
cannibalism
appears more prevalent among women
and
that
males who practice cannibal-
ism
seldom
eat
the bodies
of women.
The recent influx
of
loreigh settlers into
the
Kuru area has
led
to increasing
re-
jection
of
cannibalistic
practice, and this,
in
turn, may be responsible for the pro-
gressive decline
in
the number
of
cases
of Kuru
since
1
960.
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