The disease, known as kuru, led to a loss of motor coordination and balance, and then to a body tremor resulting in death. At the height of the epidemic, some villages had a significantly reduced ...

Today is Rare Disease Day, and to mark it, we're taking a look at one condition that killed all those who contracted it in a rather disturbing way.

This sometimes meant they consumed abnormally folded proteins, called prions, that can cause a fatal neurodegenerative condition called kuru – which is related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Since presentation of this material the first 3 chimpanzees, which were inoculated intracerebrally with brain suspension from the first sacrificed chimpanzee with the kuru-like syndrome ...