A transmissible subacute spongiform encephalopathy in a visitor to the eastern highlands of New Guinea.
A Caucasian male, clinically ill with a respiratory disease, visited the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea (endemic for kuru in the Fore people) and developed subacute spongiform encephalopathy (Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease) ten weeks later, from which he subsequently died. Brain material was inoculated intracranially into squirrel monkeys, and several of them developed a spongiform encephalopathy. Monkeys that received control material (normal brain) were normal. Electronmicroscopic features in affected brain tissue are described, and the question of a relationship between Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease and kuru is considered.
D000818:Animals; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000635:transmission; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D007729:Kuru / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009512:New Guinea; D012453:Saimiri; D012897:Slow Virus Diseases / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000635:transmission