A virologist visits the Papuan anthropophagists

Abstract

In the 1950's, the American Carleton Gajdusek (1923-2008) was able to find the cause for kuru, a systematically fatal neurological disease, observed mainly on the Western Highlands of New Guinea. While living for a long period with the local indigenous population and studying their customs, he evidenced the infectious origin of this pathology and its transmission mechanism, cannibalism. He also demonstrated the transmissible nature of the agent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob. His works opened an important prospective field of research in neuroscience. A Nobel prize rewarded this outstanding scientific and human adventure.