On The Mysterious

Plenty Of Brains, But —

Still Little Light

Problems Of Kuru

Although the band of medica experts who have studied it i

growing every month, there is stil

no answer to the problem o

kuru, the mystery disease whid

is killing members of the For population in New Guinea’s Has

tem Highlands.

MONG the latest experts t( study various aspects of th( disease is a group of Adelaide doctors, including Professor H. N Robson, Professor of Medicine ai Adelaide University; Professor J. B Cleland, the University’s Emeritus Professor of Pathology; Dr. H Lander, of the University’s medica! department; and Dr. Donald Simp son, of the neurology department oi the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Prof. Robson is currently making his second trip to Okapa.

Meanwhile, a clinical picture ol kuru, written by Dr. V. Zigas and Dr. D. Gajdusek, who were the first to make a medical investigation of the disease, has been published in a recent issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.

Their report is based on a study of 154 cases, which they believe are most of the cases in the region, and shows that kuru is predominantly a disease of women.

Of the 154 cases studied, only 23 were men. The age and sex dis tribution of the 154 was: Aged 5-9 years, 8 males, 21 females; aged 10- 14, 3 males, 4 females; aged 15-19, 7 males, 6 females; aged 20-29, 5 males, 28 females; aged 30-39, 1 male, 48 females; aged over 40, no males, 23 females.

Disease Extends

The report says that since over three-quarters of the cases were among adults, the full impact of kuru is among the young adult and middle-aged women, and it is evident kuru has been a major factor in producing the current male pre ponderance in the Fore population.

Every Fore village and hamlet has a history of recent kuru deaths.

The disease occurs in the entire region inhabited by the Fore cultural and linguistic group and ex tends into the neighbouring groups of the Kimi, Auiana, Usurufa, Kanite and Keiagana peoples.

It has also affected a small group of 700 people in the lagaria linguistic group, whose tribal grounds

on the western slopes of Mt. hael, but who migrated to this ion east of Mt. Michael several orations ago and have exten ily intermarried with the Fore, i each of these neighbouring ips, Kuru affects only the portion the population immediately ad mt to the Fore. The more re ;e settlements, who do not inter- Ty with the Fore, are free of it.

11,000 Fore

otal population of all these iges and hamlets affected with u is 16,000, about 11,000 of them ig the Fore people themselves, bout one per cent, of the total ulation is affected with kuru, at mservative estimate, although in e Fore clans and tribes the •ent incidence reaches 5 to 10 per t. of the population, and over 50 cent, of all deaths in some of >e communities over the past five rs have been from kuru. he disease is unrelentingly pro isive, and in the villages it ally runs its course in six to 3 months, and rarely lasts over ear. Occasionally, patients die lin three to six months of the it. here have been a few cases of •very, but the doctors say that 1 believe the disease is uniformly -1 and that the recoveries are ;s of hysterical mimicry.

Piey say it would not be surpris to find such cases because kuru ipies a significant place in ent Fore culture, in which it is sved to be a malady induced by ery, all recoveries being at uted to counter-sorcery or to re al of the kuru-inducing charm, le doctors report they have also two cases of congenitial tremors, Jh could not be confused with i.

Referring to one of the many symptoms of kuru (the one that has earned for the disease the popular name of “Laughing Death”) the doctors’ report says;

"Laughing Death"

“As the disease progresses, but still in the early months of illness, marked emotionalism appears; in appropriate excessive laughter and slowly relaxed smile or paroxysmal hilarity alternate at times with moods of depression and, occasion ally, of moderately belligerent and aggressive behaviour.

“This moodiness, more usually that of excessive euphoria [sense of health, cheerfulness] than of de

pression, settles later in a gradual pattern of withdrawal.”

After outlining the various in vestigations into the cause of kuru, which so far have been in vain, and the various drugs used in an at tempt to control it, again in vain, the report says that slight similar ities to kuru found in some other rare diseases due to metal poisoning, makes a continued quest for a pos sible mineral or organic poisoning “mandatory”. t An inquest into the deaths of three men killed by a runaway tor pedo in Rabaul in November has returned a verdict of death by mis adventure.

the Roman Catholic Church in Port esby on November 23, Mr. A. Hollsorth married to Miss Mitzi Evans, daughter of ell known resident of lona standing, Mr Evans. Photo: Papuan Prints.