A mysterious laughing death in Papua New Guinea revealed a terrifying new biological agent.
In short: In the 1950s, researchers encountered an inexplicable, fatal illness among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Known as kuru, the disease caused tremors and emotional instability, eventually leading to death. It was not a virus or bacteria, but something far more strange: a misfolded protein capable of destroying brains.
The Fore people, a group of about 11,000 living in the Eastern Highlands, faced a demographic crisis as kuru claimed up to 200 lives annually. The disease primarily struck adult women and children, leading many locals to attribute the deaths to sorcery. Medical anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum, who began mapping family trees in 1961, realized the pattern was social rather than genetic. She discovered that the illness was linked to mortuary feasts, where the deceased were consumed as an act of love and grief.
Women were responsible for preparing and consuming the bodies, often sharing portions with children. This practice, intended to tame the spirit of the dead, inadvertently transmitted the infectious agent. When researchers injected infected human brain tissue into chimpanzees, the animals developed symptoms, confirming the transmission route. The culprit was identified as a prion—a twisted protein that forces healthy proteins on nerve cells to misfold. This process leaves the brain riddled with holes, resembling a sponge, and can take decades to manifest.
The epidemic likely originated from a single case of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease within a Fore village. Although the Fore abandoned these funeral practices over 50 years ago, the long incubation period meant cases continued to appear. The last person with kuru died in 2009, and surveillance officially ended in 2012. While rare, prion diseases remain a subject of intense study, particularly regarding why these proteins exist in the first place, with one hypothesis suggesting they help protect nerve cells.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: When People Ate People, A Strange Disease Emerged
- Also: Fore people
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