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- Title
Kuru in the 21st century--an acquired human prion disease with very long incubation periods.
- Authors
Collinge, John; Whitfield, Jerome; McKintosh, Edward; Beck, John; Mead, Simon; Thomas, Dafydd J; Alpers, Michael P
- Abstract
Kuru provides the principal experience of epidemic human prion disease. Its incidence has steadily fallen after the abrupt cessation of its route of transmission (endocannibalism) in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s. The onset of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), and the unknown prevalence of infection after the extensive dietary exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions in the UK, has led to renewed interest in kuru. We investigated possible incubation periods, pathogenesis, and genetic susceptibility factors in kuru patients in Papua New Guinea.
- Publication
Lancet (London, England), 2006, Vol 367, Issue 9528, p2068
- ISSN
1474-547X
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68930-7