Motor-Neuron Disease in Natives of New Guinea

Abstract

WITH the focuses of high incidence of motor-neuron disease now known in the Chamorro and Carolinian populations in the Mariana Islands of Micronesia^{1 2 3} and on the Kii Peninsula of Japan,⁴ it has for several years been my interest to determine whether such diseases can be found among Melanesian populations in the South Pacific. This report deals with the identification of a disease similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in several areas of New Guinea, with the discovery of a large focus of unusually high incidence of motor-neuron disease clinically akin to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but running a very slowly progressive, prolonged . . .