Vanishing Illnesses

Kuru

By: Mikh | 20/03/2025

Kuru: The Vanishing Illness of Papua New Guinea

In the mid-20th century, doctors, anthropologists, and missionaries working in the highlands of Papua New Guinea encountered a medical mystery that would baffle the scientific world for decades. The disease was called kuru, a word from the local Fore language meaning “to shiver” or “to tremble.” It was a condition unlike anything Western medicine had ever documented—slow, incurable, and inevitably fatal. Yet, within a few generations, this terrifying illness would vanish almost entirely, leaving behind one of the most striking examples of a “vanishing disease” in human history.

The Appearance of a Mystery

The Fore people lived in the remote Eastern Highlands, cut off from much of the modern world until the 1950s. Western scientists who visited the region soon learned of an illness devastating the community. Kuru first appeared as subtle symptoms: trembling hands, difficulty walking, and sudden bursts of uncontrollable laughter or crying. As the disease progressed, victims lost coordination, their speech became slurred, and they grew unable to stand or feed themselves.

For the Fore, kuru was not just a disease of the body but a spiritual affliction. They believed it was caused by sorcery, curses, or the anger of ancestral spirits. Because of this belief, the disease carried not only fear but also deep cultural meaning.

What disturbed outside observers most was its lethality. Once the first signs appeared, death was certain, usually within six to twelve months. By the mid-1950s, kuru was killing hundreds of Fore people each year, and it seemed unstoppable.

Early Scientific Investigations

When Australian colonial authorities and medical researchers first encountered kuru, they were bewildered. Unlike malaria or tuberculosis, there was no obvious infectious agent. Unlike inherited disorders, kuru seemed to spread within families but was not passed strictly through bloodlines.

In 1957, American doctor D. Carleton Gajdusek began studying the disease. He observed the patterns of its spread and concluded that it was not caused by sorcery but by some form of biological transmission. His research eventually earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976, though his personal legacy was later overshadowed by scandal.

The Shocking Truth: Ritual Cannibalism

The breakthrough came when researchers discovered that the Fore’s funerary rituals involved ritual cannibalism. Unlike in many societies where the dead are buried, the Fore believed that consuming the body of a deceased relative was the ultimate act of love, respect, and mourning.

Crucially, it was women and children who carried out these rituals, particularly consuming the brain, which was seen as a source of strength. Tragically, this practice turned out to be the key to the spread of kuru.

The culprit was not a virus or bacteria but something even stranger: a prion, a misfolded protein that can trigger other proteins in the brain to misfold, leading to massive neurological damage. The prions were concentrated in the brain tissue of infected individuals. When women and children consumed this tissue, the prions entered their bodies and began a slow, devastating attack on their nervous systems.

The Decline and Disappearance of Kuru

Once colonial administrators and missionaries intervened in the 1950s and 1960s, they discouraged and eventually suppressed ritual cannibalism. As the practice faded, so too did new cases of kuru.

However, kuru did not vanish immediately. Prion diseases have an unusually long incubation period—sometimes 10, 20, or even 50 years. This meant that individuals exposed during childhood could develop symptoms decades later. Indeed, isolated cases of kuru continued to appear well into the early 2000s.

By the late 20th century, though, the epidemic had collapsed. Today, kuru is considered a vanished illness, virtually extinct thanks to changes in cultural practices.

Scientific Importance of Kuru

The disappearance of kuru was not only a relief for the Fore people but also a landmark in medical science. The study of the disease revealed the existence of prions, a concept so radical that it transformed biology. Before kuru, scientists believed that all infectious diseases were caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. Prions introduced a new category: infectious proteins with no DNA or RNA, capable of replicating by altering the shape of normal proteins.

This discovery had far-reaching implications. It helped scientists understand other prion diseases, such as:

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans.

Scrapie in sheep.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more famously known as mad cow disease.

Thus, the study of a mysterious illness in the highlands of Papua New Guinea reshaped global medicine.

Human Impact and Cultural Lessons

Beyond science, the story of kuru also reflects the intersection of culture, tradition, and health. For the Fore, cannibalism was not barbarism—it was an act of kinship and respect. The suppression of this practice, though medically necessary, also represented a disruption of their cultural identity.

Many anthropologists point out that while kuru vanished, it left deep scars on the community. Whole families were wiped out, and women in particular bore the heaviest losses. Yet, the Fore adapted, and today, the younger generations grow up free from the fear of this once-devastating disease.

Conclusion

Kuru remains one of the most remarkable examples of a vanishing illness—a disease that appeared mysterious and unstoppable, only to fade away once its cultural roots were uncovered. From the trembling victims in the highlands of Papua New Guinea to the laboratories of Nobel Prize–winning scientists, the story of kuru bridges anthropology, medicine, and history.

It is a reminder that human culture and human biology are deeply interconnected, and that sometimes, the cure for a disease lies not in a laboratory but in changing the practices that sustain it. Though kuru has disappeared from the world, its legacy lives on in science, teaching us about prions, cultural rituals, and the fragile boundaries between life, death, and memory.

Coming Soon

We're on a mission ............................