KURU

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does kuru mean? 

• KURU (noun)
  The noun KURU has 1 sense:

1. a progressive disease of the central nervous system marked by increasing lack of coordination and advancing to paralysis and death within a year of the appearance of symptoms; thought to have been transmitted by cannibalistic consumption of diseased brain tissue since the disease virtually disappeared when cannibalism was abandoned

  Familiarity information: KURU used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KURU (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A progressive disease of the central nervous system marked by increasing lack of coordination and advancing to paralysis and death within a year of the appearance of symptoms; thought to have been transmitted by cannibalistic consumption of diseased brain tissue since the disease virtually disappeared when cannibalism was abandoned

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("kuru" is a kind of...):

nervous disorder; neurological disease; neurological disorder (a disorder of the nervous system)

 Context examples 

Human prion diseases include fatal insomnia; kuru; Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome; and variant, familial and sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD).

(Study finds no chronic wasting disease transmissibility in macaques, National Institutes of Health)

Human prion diseases include fatal insomnia; kuru; Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome; and variant, familial and sporadic CJD.

(NIH scientists and collaborators find infectious prion protein in skin of CJD patients, National Institutes of Health)