A creeping epidemic has claimed the lives of thousands of men, women and children around the world. From the jungles of Papua New Guinea, to Australian fertility clinics and British butcher shops, it is a disease that comes in many guises. Among the Highlanders of PNG it is called Kuru. In Western hospitals it is known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in newspapers it makes headlines as Mad Cow Disease.
Hiding in the body, the disease can lie in wait for decades as it slowly eats holes in the brain. No-one ever survives. For years the cause was unknown. Now the painstaking research of an elite group of veterinary and medical researchers has uncovered some clues.
Multi-award-winning journalist Jennifer Cooke has traced this incredible story from its origins to the recent horrifying developments. One of the most significant discoveries so far is that CJD has been spread by the practice of cannibalism. And she concludes that the epidemic has only just begun.
