Vincent Zigas (1920–1983) was a medical officer of the Kainantu Sub-District in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

during the 1950s and was one of the first Western medical officials to note the uniqueness of

kuru Kuru may refer to: Anthropology and history * Kuru (disease), a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy associated with the cannibalistic funeral practices of the Fore people * Kuru (mythology), part of Meithei mythology * Kuru Kingdom, ...

and begin to investigate it. It is important to note that very little can be found regarding his life and work, though he is listed in many, if not nearly all, of the early academic descriptions and writings surrounding kuru. Zigas was born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in 1920 and little is known about his early life. He is reported to have studied medicine at a number of European universities including those in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

, Breslau, and

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, and spoke a number of different languages. In 1948, he moved to Australia. After a four month course at the

Australian School of Pacific Administration The Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) was a tertiary institution established by the Australian Government to train administrators and later school teachers to work in Papua New Guinea. It became the International Training Insti ...

taught by Camilla Wedgewood and

James McAuley James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, Australian literature, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism. He was involved in the Ern Malley poetry hoax. Life ...

(spelled McCauley by Zigas), Zigas went to Papua New Guinea in 1950 where he was the only medical officer in his region. It was here that he began to hear rumors of a unique illness characterized by body tremors, ataxia, and uncontrollable laughter found only in the Fore tribe that the locals attributed to sorcery. These rumors led him to seek out the Fore and he began to look into this disease, known by the locals as kuru which meant "to shiver." While certain accounts say that D. Carleton Gajdusek simply appeared in Papua New Guinea, others note that his trip spurred from a connection in Australia. Regardless of how Gajdusek arrived, the American physician immediately began to pepper Zigas with questions surrounding the mysterious disease kuru and in that year (1957), Zigas introduced Gajdusek to the Fore tribe. After conducting autopsies, attempting treatments, and characterizing the illness, together, Zigas and Gajdusek published "Degenerative Disease of the Central Nervous System in New Guinea — The Endemic Occurrence of Kuru in the Native Population" in the

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hist ...

in November 1957. While this article noted the manifestations of kuru, its associated geography, and certain findings from lab tests and autopsies, the authors could only speculate on the disease's cause and how it was transmitted. More importantly, this article put kuru on the map and served as an introduction to future investigations into the origins, transmission, and causes of it. In the years after these investigations, Zigas published two autobiographical books about his time in Papua New Guinea characterizing kuru. The first, ''Auscultation of Two Worlds'' was published in 1978 and the second, ''Laughing Death'', was published posthumously in 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zigas, Vincent 1920 births 1983 deaths Estonian neurologists Estonian expatriates in Germany Estonian emigrants to Australia Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea