And now, The rest of the story:
It is believed by some that the disease spread easily and rapidly in the Fore people due to their endocannibalistic funeral practices, in which relatives consumed the deceased to return the "life force" of the deceased to his hamlet, a Fore societal subunit.[7]
The dysmorphism evident in the infection rates—kuru was 8-9 times more prevalent in women and children than in men at its peak—is because while the men of the village took the choice cuts, the women and children would eat the rest of the body including the brain, where the prion particles were particularly concentrated.
There is also the strong possibility that it was passed on to women and children more easily because they took on the task of cleaning relatives after death and may have had open sores and cuts on their hands.[5]. Although ingestion itself of the prion particles would not lead to the disease, there was a high degree of transmission if the prion particles could reach the subcutaneous tissue.
With elimination of cannibalism because of Australian law enforcement and local Christian missionaries' efforts, Kuru rapidly declined among the Fore. However, the mean incubation period of the disease is 14 years and cases were reported with latencies of 40 years for those who were most genetically resilient.
Thanks, blam, for reminding me of the rest of the story. I had remembered this from a TV special many years ago, and so the “choicer” details were a little blurry. However, the story made such an impression upon me that the Zambia article brought it immediately to my mind!
Interesting that the Christian Missionaries were helpful in bringing this awful practice to an end. I am sure the “Multiculturalists” consider that to be an intrusion.
Yuck ...