For more than half a century, the world has known disturbing details of how a ancient practice to dismiss the dead it was closely related to a fatal disease.
Its regarding kuru, a very rare disease. According to some medical reports, it was found among people from a community in New Guinea, an island north of Australia, who practiced a form of cannibalism.
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As it has transpired, they ate the brains of dead people as part of the funeral ritual.
Years later, medical research indicated that the main risk factor for contracting kuru was that practice that focused on the consumption of human brain tissue. This occurs because it can contain infectious particles.
Although this practice has been known stopped taking place since 1960, Scientific reports documented cases of this disease several years later. The incubation time might last several years following exposure.
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Eating a brain further raises the risk of contract prions. Media have reported that patients who have suffered it lost control of their emotions, then body functions and finally died. The word kuru, in the native language, means to tremble or shiver.
Among the symptoms that have been documented are limb pain, coordination problems, difficulty walking, headache, tremors, difficulty swallowing, among others.
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After several investigations, it was possible to verify the close relationship between the funeral practices of the members of some communities and the development of this disease.
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In this way, this ritual stopped being performed, but research indicates that several decades later cases might manifest because the disease might take up to fifty years to show symptoms. Press reports have documented new deaths related to this disease in New Guinea in recent years.
TIME
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