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There are many rare disease in the reality that many people have never even heard of . One such rare and fatal disease is call off kuru . Kuru is a nervous system disease that was extremely prevalent during the 1950s and 1960s amongst the Fore tribe in New Guinea . It was believed that the disease originated due to the Fore multitude performing cannibalism on corpses during their funeral rituals . The term kuru means ‘ tremble in fear or ‘ throb . ’ Symptoms of kuru include loss of brawn coordination and muscularity twitching . There is no known cure for the disease , and if a person contracts the disease , they usually succumb to it within a year of draw disease . record on to find out everything you need to make out about kuru .

What is Kuru?

Kuru is a rare eccentric of nervous organization disease that has a in high spirits rate of fatality . The disease was most commonly observed in the fifties and sixties in the Fore kin group of New Guinea , who contracted it due to cannibalism on corps while performing funeral rituals.(1,2 )

The most vernacular symptoms of kuru admit loss of coordination and muscle twitching . Some other symptoms of kuru may admit :

live difficultness in eating can lead to malnutrition , which tends to worsen as the disease move on . There is no known therapeutic for kuru , and the disease run to be fatal within one year .

Over the years , there has been a lot of research that has been done on kuru . In fact , kuru was identified as the first neurodegenerative disease triggered by an infectious agent . This led to the formation of a new social class of diseases which include fatal familial insomnia , Gerstmann - Sträussler - Scheinker disease , and Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease . Even today , the inquiry and survey of this disease continue to affect the theater of operations of neurodegenerative diseases.(3,4,5 )

What are the Symptoms & Causes of Kuru?

Many of the symptom of neurological condition like Parkinson ’s disease or cerebrovascular accident tend to mimic the symptoms of kuru . These alike symptoms may include :

Kuru tends to occur in three master stages . However , the disease is typically preceded by joint pain and headaches . Since these are also the common symptoms of many diseases , they are normally missed or ignore as clew that there is a much more severe disease underlying the symptoms.(6,7 )

Here are the three point of kuru:(8 )

Malnutrition and starving also tend to set in at phase three because of the trouble in eat and swallowing . These are the lowly symptoms of kuru that make the death of the somebody within one year . Most people who have contracted kuru end up dying from complications likepneumonia.(9 )

When kuru was first name , it was found that it was spreading amongst the Fore people due to cannibalism that they perform during their funeral rituals . Kuru is classified to belong to a form of disease known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ( TSEs ) , also known as prion diseases . This course of disease affects the cerebellum part of the brain , which helps regulate balance and coordination in people . Unlike most of the plebeian transmission or infectious agents , kuru is neither do by bacterium , fungus kingdom , or viruses . The disease is because of infectious and unnatural proteins love as prions.(10,11,12 )

Prions are not considered to be life organisms , and they do not reproduce . Prions are distorted and inanimate proteins that lean to multiply rapidly in the mental capacity , rapidly forming clumps . This break up your usual brain processes .

Some of the other degenerative disease that are because of prions admit disastrous hereditary insomnia , Gerstmann - Sträussler - Scheinker disease , and Creutzfeldt - Jakob . These are all spongiform disease , just like kuru , and they stop up forge sponge - same holes in your brain . All these diseases have a in high spirits human death rate.(13,14,15 )

you could get kuru by coming into tangency with open sore or wounds of a person who has the disease or by eat on the septic mastermind of someone with kuru . In the initial days of kuru , char and children were the chief people affected because they were normally the master participants in the funeral rituals of the Fore citizenry in New Guinea . Even though the politics of New Guinea strictly warn the practice session of cannibalism , even today , some cases of kuru keep come along from time to metre , especially given the long incubation period of the disease . However , the disease still remains a rarefied occurrence.(16 )

Diagnosis and Treatment of Kuru

The first step in diagnose kuru is a neurological test . Your Dr. will perform a thorough neurological examination , which will admit the following :

As mentioned above , there is no known therapeutic for kuru even today . Similarly , there is no known successful discourse for the disease . It is not potential to easy destroy the prions that are responsible for for make the disease . psyche that are infect with these prion stay on to stay infected even after being preserved in formaldehyde for several years.(17,18 )

Is It Possible To Prevent Kuru?

Cases of kuru are exceptionally uncommon . The disease can only be contracted if you eat the infected brain tissue paper or derive into direct contact with someone who has sores that bear the kuru - get prions . society and administration have been working together to prevent the spread of this disease since the mid-20th century by actively monish the exercise of cannibalism , especially in tribal arena . According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke ( NINDS ) , kuru has been almost whole pass over out . However , some case still do emerge from fourth dimension to time in very remote areas.(19 )

The brooding period of kuru , which is the time period between the initial contagion and the genuine development of symptom , is extremely long , sometimes taking as long as 30 years even . Cases of kuru have even been reported today , long after the practice of cannibalism has been wiped off the world .

Today , the disease is seldom diagnose , and if a person exhibits symptom similar to those have in kuru , it is more likely to be due to other serious neurologic disorderliness or spongiform diseases .

Conclusion

you may only contract kuru if you eat the septic brain of someone who has kuru or if you come in contact with someone who has sores or wounds that contain the prions that cause kuru . People with kuru need help even to stand up or move around , finally losing the ability to eat and immerse because of symptom . Since there is no cure for the disease , mass with kuru may go into a coma within six month to a twelvemonth after the development of the initial symptoms .

Kuru is a fateful disease , and you could forestall press the disease by stave off vulnerability and consuming an infected genius .

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