When she was 23, a lab worker pricked her thumb in an experiment with prion-infected mice. She died 10 years later

Lol @ virus R&D.

It feels likely to me that we only see the tip of the iceberg, and that in reality many people are infected and even dying from prion disease. Maybe some are asymptomatic and no one will know they were infected unless an autopsy is performed.

I take comfort in the fact that some people in Papua New Guinea have evolved immunity to Kuru over time.