A slowly progressive, fatal disease due to spongiform degeneration in the central nervous system, and particularly the cerebellum (see BRAIN). It is confined to the Fore people in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, and causes increasingly severe muscular trembling. Kuru is believed to be due to an infection with a PRION, similar to that causing CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (CJD), possibly acquired from the cannibalistic rite of eating, out of respect, the organs – and particularly the brains – of deceased relatives. Since the rite was abandoned, the disease has largely disappeared.