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Look up one prion disease and describe it here. What population does this disease infect? How is it usually transmitted? How common is it? What are the major symptoms? Be sure to cite your sources.

User ThottChief
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1 Answer

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Kuru is a Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy which was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. This disease is caused by a prion, i.e., a protein that can trigger other proteins in the brain to fold abnormally. The abnormally folded proteins in the brain cause neurodegeneration which ultimately lead to death. The main symptom of the Kuru disease is the loss of coordination and control over the muscle movements. The transmission of Kuru was because of a ritual in which Fore people consumed body parts of their family members just after their death. The Fore people stopped to eat human meat in the early 1960s, causing the kuru epidemic to decline dramatically. It is not certainly known if the last kuru victim died in 2005 or 2009.

User Jim Morrison
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