Lessons of kuru research: background to recent studies with some personal reflections

The widespread exposure of the UK population to bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions, and the potential consequences for public health, led to a renewed interest in kuru, the principal example of epidemic human prion disease. Kuru research in Papua New Guinea was expanded to study the range of incubation periods possible in human prion infection, to investigate maternal and other possible natural routes of transmission, to characterize genetic susceptibility and resistance factors and to gain insights into the peripheral pathogenesis of orally acquired prion disease in humans. Although now essentially over, the kuru epidemic continues to provide important lessons.