Kuru

**Definition:** A disease of the nervous system, caused by a prion. This disease is characterised by limb pain, ataxia, tremors, decreased coordination, or emotional changes, and is fatal. Transmission is by ingestion of infected human brain, or direct contact. Confirmation is commonly by clinical signs, or pathological examination of the brain.

**Long definition:** Kuru was an endemic prion disease characterized clinically by ataxia and neuropathologically by kuru plaques in the cerebellum. Kuru was transmitted by cannibalism found in the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea, and has almost disappeared.