The age incidence of kuru

Summary The incidence of kuru in the populations of the South Fore and Gimi census divisions in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea has been analysed. When the probable accuracy of the initial estimates of age (or years of birth) is taken into account, the mortality curves for females lack the bimodality thought to be characteristic of kuru; instead, their mortality and morbidity rates increase fairly steadily with age, attaining their maximum value at about 45 years of age, and then decline. The two populations differ from one another in the level of mortality from kuru, and possibly also in their patterns of incidence. Accepting the simple genetic hypothesis proposed by Bennett et al. (1959), gene frequencies were estimated from the deaths from kuru in the life table populations, but in the South Fore at least these frequencies were so high that the initial hvnothesis becomes untenable.