The Cannibalism That Transmitted a New Type of Pathogen

In this video, we explore the story of Kuru, a prion infection discovered in a tribe in Papua New Guinea.

CONTACT:

Sources:
1. Liberski, P. P. Kuru: A Journey Back in Time from Papua New Guinea to the Neanderthals’ Extinction. Pathogens 2, 472–505 (2013).
2. Liberski, P. P., Gajos, A., Sikorska, B. & Lindenbaum, S. Kuru, the First Human Prion Disease. Viruses 11, 232 (2019).
3. Liberski, P. P. et al. Kuru: Genes, Cannibals and Neuropathology. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 71, 92–103 (2012).
7. Kuru (disease). Wikipedia (2023).
8. Fore people. Wikipedia (2024).
9. Prion. Wikipedia (2024).

Video footage:

DISCLAIMER:
This video uses footage from publicly available sources. I believe that any copyrighted material falls within the realm of fair use, but if the owners wish to dispute this, I will not hesitate to remove such content immediately. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership rights in any way. If you find your material or images in the video, please let me know and I will be happy to credit you or remove the video.

The video is for entertainment purposes only without laying any claim to correctness or completeness. The information provided in this video has been carefully researched. However, despite all the care taken, errors in content cannot be ruled out with absolute certainty. If you notice such an error, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please note that in a few cases the video footage does not reflect the exact situation described in the video, but merely serves as a visual illustration.

[chivalryisdead]

Sounds like an evolutionary way to prevent cannibalism.

[mojowaxwork]

Natures way of eliminating human cannibals.

[georgespalding]

I have a feeling this is why hundreds of thousands of years ago many of the tribes of pre-humans who practiced cannibalism died out within a few generations. This might be why so many of the different human species didn't make it to modern times. They didn't know that cannibalism was not a healthy practice.

[petesahad]

Natures way of preventing cannibalism.

[danielgimj]

Lesson: Eat a human brain, lose your human brain.

[abhishekpratapsingh]

Hence proved, Relatives can fuck you up even after their death..
Edited: thank you for the responses.

[Userpiaf]

I never knew Lebron suffered from this disease, good thing he recovered and made history on basketball.

[TheMothernerd]

This is basically the human version of Mad Cow Disease.

[DarqueQueen]

Damn...so, it was a human form of Mad Cow Disease. Wild, Dude.

[philcornish]

Remember in the movie the Book of Eli. People were wary of cannibals. So when they met a stranger they wanted to see the strangers hands to make sure they were not shaking.

[tbaugh]

Mr. Ballen did an amazing episode about this event.

[stacynels]

Very rare photograph of Michael Rockefeller whom was reportedly canabilised by the very natives he was studying..

[onlyroadabba]

This is why cannibalism is NOT okay. It’s not just spiritually taboo, but also physically.

[zephaniahpagasa]

I’m from Papua New Guinea. We are a diverse country of 800 plus tribes and very multicultural and one of the last places on earth to be discovered by the colonizers. This practices doesn’t happened anymore and the tribe that practices cannibalism stop doing that in the early 50s and 60s . It is part of our history now and It is now merely just stories told to kids nowadays.
Papua New Guinea is a beautiful country and I hope some of you can come visit the vast rainforest and the beautiful white sandy beaches on the coast and not to mention our beautiful traditional attires that is worn by the different tribes and the beautiful chant sang by each tribe as they welcome you in to their culture. 🫡

[lisa]

Didn't they realize that their relatives died from some type of ailment and that they should not eat any part of the body

[TjR-qq]

Fun fact...the Caucasian man in the black/white picture was not a researcher of these tribes but was son of the Rockefeller family who went to photograph these tribes yet was in turn killed and eaten by them in the early 1960s.

[Zamri-hi]

The disturbing part is cannibalism. The sick part is a curse

[SuperSayantan]

This discovery gave the researcher (Stanley Prusiner) the nobel prize in 1997. 😊

[essencesmith]

I love the way mother nature balances out everything 🙂

[Guyfromfakeland]

Even nature outlawed cannibalism damn.