Cannibalism is a disease of kuru. Kuru disease. Video "How pasteurellosis affects poultry"

Story

The disease was described in detail in the city by the Australian physician Zygas and the Slovak-Hungarian American Carlton Gajduzek.

The word "kuru" in the language of the Fore tribe has two meanings - "trembling" and "damage". Members of the Fore tribe believed that the disease was the result of an evil eye by a foreign shaman.

Kuru is the most typical example of human transmissible prion diseases, spongiform encephalopathies. It was during the study of kuru that the concept of human transmissible spongioform encephalopathies was formed.

Clinic

The disease was spread through ritual cannibalism, namely the eating of the brain of a person suffering from this disease. With the eradication of cannibalism, kuru practically disappeared. However, there are still isolated cases, because the incubation period can last more than 30 years.

The main symptoms of the disease are severe trembling and jerky movements of the head, sometimes accompanied by a smile, similar to that which appears in patients with tetanus (risus sardonicus). This, however, is not a typical feature. Designation "laughing death" for kuru - on the conscience of the creators of the headlines of newspaper articles. Members of the Fore tribe never speak of illness in this way.

In the initial stage, the disease is manifested by dizziness and fatigue. Then comes the headache, convulsions, and finally the typical trembling. Within a few months, brain tissue degrades into a spongy mass. The disease is characterized by progressive degeneration of the nerve cells of the central nervous system, especially in the area of the brain that controls body movements performed by a person. As a result, there is a violation of the control of muscle movements and a tremor of the trunk, limbs and head develops. This disease occurs mainly in women and children, and is considered incurable - after 9-12 months it ends in death.

Pathogenesis

According to modern data, kuru is a prion infection, one of the types of spongiform encephalopathy.

For the discovery of the infectious nature of the Kuru disease, Carlton Gajduzek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the city. He donated the prize money to the Fore tribe. Gaidusek himself did not recognize the prion theory and was convinced that so-called slow viruses cause spongiform encephalopathy. This theory still has supporters, although they are a minority.

The prion theory of the development of spongiform encephalopathy was developed by another American scientist Stanley Prusiner (Eng. Stanley Prusiner), for which he was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in St.

Immunity

In 2009, American scientists made an unexpected discovery: some members of the Fore tribe, thanks to a new PRNP gene polymorphism that appeared in them relatively recently, have innate immunity to chicken. They published the results of their research in the New England Journal of Medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine).

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Notes

Literature

Vashchenko M. A., Anisimova Yu. N. Slow neuroviral infections. - Kyiv: Health, 1982. - 112 p.

An excerpt characterizing Kuru (illness)

Soon after this, a report was received from the partisan detachment of Dorokhov, who was walking to the left of Tarutin, that troops had appeared in Fominsky, that these troops consisted of Brusier's division, and that this division, separated from other troops, could easily be exterminated. Soldiers and officers again demanded activity. Staff generals, excited by the memory of the ease of victory at Tarutin, insisted on Kutuzov's execution of Dorokhov's proposal. Kutuzov did not consider any offensive necessary. The average came out, that which was to be accomplished; a small detachment was sent to Fominsky, which was supposed to attack Brussier.
By a strange chance, this appointment - the most difficult and most important, as it turned out later - was received by Dokhturov; that same modest, little Dokhturov, whom no one described to us as making battle plans, flying in front of regiments, throwing crosses at batteries, etc., who was considered and called indecisive and impenetrable, but the same Dokhturov, whom during all the Russian wars with the French, from Austerlitz and up to the thirteenth year, we find commanders wherever only the situation is difficult. In Austerlitz, he remains the last at the Augusta dam, gathering regiments, saving what is possible when everything is running and dying and not a single general is in the rearguard. He, sick with a fever, goes to Smolensk with twenty thousand to defend the city against the entire Napoleonic army. In Smolensk, he had barely dozed off at the Molokhov Gates, in a paroxysm of fever, he was awakened by the cannonade across Smolensk, and Smolensk held out all day. On Borodino day, when Bagration was killed and the troops of our left flank were killed in the ratio of 9 to 1 and the entire force of the French artillery was sent there, no one else was sent, namely the indecisive and impenetrable Dokhturov, and Kutuzov was in a hurry to correct his mistake when he sent there another. And the small, quiet Dokhturov goes there, and Borodino is the best glory of the Russian army. And many heroes are described to us in verse and prose, but almost not a word about Dokhturov.
Again Dokhturov is sent there to Fominsky and from there to Maly Yaroslavets, to the place where the last battle with the French took place, and to the place from which, obviously, the death of the French already begins, and again many geniuses and heroes describe to us during this period of the campaign , but not a word about Dokhturov, or very little, or doubtful. This silence about Dokhturov most obviously proves his merits.
Naturally, for a person who does not understand the movement of the machine, when he sees its operation, it seems that the most important part of this machine is that chip that accidentally got into it and, interfering with its movement, is rattling in it. A person who does not know the structure of the machine cannot understand that not this spoiling and interfering chip, but that small transmission gear that turns inaudibly, is one of the most essential parts of the machine.
On October 10, on the very day Dokhturov walked halfway to Fominsky and stopped in the village of Aristovo, preparing to execute the given order exactly, the entire French army, in its convulsive movement, reached the position of Murat, as it seemed, in order to give the battle, suddenly, for no reason, turned to the left onto the new Kaluga road and began to enter Fominsky, in which only Brussier had previously stood. Dokhturov under command at that time had, in addition to Dorokhov, two small detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
On the evening of October 11, Seslavin arrived in Aristovo to the authorities with a captured French guard. The prisoner said that the troops that had now entered Fominsky were the vanguard of the entire large army, that Napoleon was right there, that the entire army had already left Moscow for the fifth day. That same evening, a courtyard man who came from Borovsk told how he saw the entry of a huge army into the city. Cossacks from the Dorokhov detachment reported that they saw the French guards walking along the road to Borovsk. From all this news, it became obvious that where they thought to find one division, there was now the whole French army, marching from Moscow in an unexpected direction - along the old Kaluga road. Dokhturov did not want to do anything, because it was not clear to him now what his duty was. He was ordered to attack Fominsky. But in Fominsky there used to be only Brussier, now there was the whole French army. Yermolov wanted to do as he pleased, but Dokhturov insisted that he needed to have an order from his Serene Highness. It was decided to send a report to headquarters.

KURU. laughing death

Since time immemorial, the Fore tribe has lived in the mountains of New Guinea. These people connected with the rest of humanity only in 1932. They were discovered by gold digger Ted Eibank.

In 1949, Christian priests appeared among the Papuans. Bad news awaited them - the natives enthusiastically devoured their own kind and found this occupation incomparably more exciting than humble prayer. One of the most terrible Fore rituals was ... eating the brain of a deceased family member by relatives! Here is how an eyewitness describes this horror:

“The eating of dead relatives, in which women and children took the main part, was considered among the Fore natives as a tribute and mourning. It was believed that by eating the brain of the deceased, relatives acquire his mind and all his virtues ... Women and girls dismember the corpses of the dead with their bare hands. After separating the brain and muscles, they lay them with their bare hands in specially prepared bamboo cylinders, which are then kept for a short time on hot stones in holes dug for this purpose in the ground. At this time, women wipe their hands on their bodies and hair, clean their wounds, comb insect bites, wipe children's eyes and clean their noses. A little time passes, and women and children begin to crowd around the hearths, impatiently waiting for the cylinders to be opened at last, the contents to be removed and the feast to begin.

In addition to wild rituals, the holy fathers faced a strange illness. The natives called him "kuru". Later, journalists will call him "laughing death." Doctors cannot understand where the terrible disease came from and therefore in all encyclopedias they write - "the disease occurs spontaneously."

The natives have a more definite opinion on this matter. They believe that this is the revenge of the sorcerers.

However, first things first. One day, one of the mission workers, John MacArthur, saw a strangely behaving girl: “She was trembling violently, and her head spasmodically swayed from side to side. I was told that she was a victim of witchcraft and that this trembling continued until her death. She won't be able to eat until she dies. She should be dead in a few weeks."

Naturally, the Europeans could not disregard such "witchcraft". Doctors soon became interested in the disease, including Carlton Gaidushek. He managed to describe the disease.

The first stage: impaired gait, coordination of movements, headache, fever, runny nose, cough. When the disease progresses, trembling of the limbs and head occurs 2-3 times per second and disappears only during sleep.

Second stage: the person's coordination is so disturbed that he cannot move. Gradually, a person turns into a "vegetable" and dies after 16 months.

Another terrible symptom of this disease is uncontrolled laughter by the sick. Some of them suddenly have a smile. Why this happens, the doctors have not explained so far. There is a hypothesis that the matter is in muscle spasms.

Since the disease is always associated with the development of dementia, Gaidushek immediately realized that the disease affects the brain. This was also evidenced by the deterioration of coordination. It is known that when some parts of the brain are removed, a person can only walk in a straight line. In the case when the patient tries to turn, he simply falls.

The autopsy of those who died from kuru fully confirmed the doctor's theory. The brain of the deceased resembled a sponge in structure. It was also possible to find out that the incubation period of the disease can last up to 20 years.

The doctor was also able to establish how the infection occurs. To do this, it was enough to follow the diet of the natives. Gajdushek noticed that men who eat mainly beans and sweet potatoes do not suffer much from kuru. But among women and children who periodically participate in cannibalistic rituals, the disease is very common. From this followed the conclusion that one of the ways of infection is eating infected meat.

A new step in the study of the mysterious infection was taken when the doctor sent tissue samples taken from another victim to his colleague. Here it became clear that kuru is an analogue of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The brain of a person who has had one of these ailments is covered with "vacuoles" (voids) that make it look like a sponge.

Another parallel was drawn with scrapie, a disease that affects sheep and has similar consequences. Thus, a new type of disease appeared - prion diseases.

For proving the similarity of all three diseases, Hajdushek was awarded the Nobel Prize. This made it possible to save the Fore tribe from complete extinction. The Papuans simply abandoned cannibalism. It would seem that “the trick is in the bag” ... but life threw an unpleasant surprise ...

Suddenly, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, previously only seen in the elderly, began to affect young people. Doctors could not understand for a long time what was the matter. Actually, they didn’t understand much before - the cause of the disease was not known ...

The epidemic continued to develop until it was noticed that all young people affected by the disease were undergoing a special course of treatment to increase their height. The fact is that by the beginning of the 60s, scientists isolated growth hormone in the pituitary gland and learned how to implant it in children. Naturally, the only source of the hormone was the brain of the dead. Among the donors were carriers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

As already mentioned, prion diseases have a long incubation period. Therefore, by the time the doctors declared the epidemic, "growth hormone" was administered to 27,000 children!

Now let's do the math. The project was stopped in 1984. The incubation period reaches 20 years. Thus, the dire consequences are just beginning to manifest.

Mad cow disease

The so-called mad cow disease was first encountered by the British. Farmer Peter Stent once noticed that one of his cows was behaving like crazy - mooing, arching her back and shaking her head. Soon the animal died. And after some time, the same fate befell another 9 individuals. Veterinarians have never encountered such a disease, and therefore they called it Pitsham Farm Syndrome.

But that was only the beginning. The fact is that today many livestock feeds contain the so-called meat and bone meal. Through it, the infection began. The British authorities failed to assess the scale of the tragedy. Instead of destroying the contaminated food, they ordered a five-week period (!) to stop using it. Moreover, it was forbidden to add them to food only for cattle. Pigs and chickens continued to receive meat and bone meal. Already realizing that an epidemic had begun among the animals, the inhabitants of Foggy Albion nevertheless exported contaminated feed to Asia. And they sold something like a million tons!

Meanwhile, the disease is attacking pets and animals in zoos. In 1993, the chief physician of Great Britain assured with an air of importance that the risk of human infection is practically zero. At the same time, all signs of a prion infection are observed in Alison Williams. When the girl dies, an autopsy will show that the patient was killed by something very similar to prions, and not only the cerebral cortex was affected, but also the rest of its parts. Two young people died after eating a steak made from contaminated meat in the same restaurant.

The Guardian writes: “Beef is one of the great united symbols of our culture. Roast beef in England as a fetish, the god of the family hearth, suddenly suddenly turned into a Trojan horse to our death.

Finally, the government prohibits any processing of dead livestock. However, 30 cases of mad cow disease are reported each year. The epidemic is being transferred to Spain and Germany. In fact, all countries that received British livestock feed supplements in 1980-90 are at risk. Arnaud Eboli was the first victim of mad cow disease in France. A 17-year-old boy has been suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease for 3 years.

Many doctors look bleakly into the future, believing that the epidemic of prion diseases is just beginning ...

All troubles from animals

Recently, the book "The Six Plagues of Modernity and How We Cause Them" by Mark Jerome Walters has been published. He believes that such scourges of humanity as mad cow disease, SARS, salmonellosis, Lyme disease, HIV / AIDS, hantavirus, have arisen due to human activities. Or rather, due to the fact that, with the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, he became interested in methods alien to nature.

“A whole galaxy of new diseases is emerging before our eyes,” writes Walters. - Some of them develop from old ones, and we ourselves are to blame for the appearance of others. Due to the gross interference of people in nature, they began to develop diseases that only animals used to suffer from. It is time to understand that we should not fight with nature, that she will not swallow us if we do not resist.

In support of his version, Walters cites several examples - the spread of mad cow disease in England or the disease known as West Nile fever (appeared in 1999 and claimed the lives of 40 people; spread by mosquitoes that have chosen the artificially irrigated expanses of Colorado).

“The emergence of new diseases once again shows that the state of a person largely depends on the ecosystem where he lives and within which he is associated with representatives of the animal world. The intervention of people in the laws of nature upsets the balance between man and the microorganisms present within the ecosystem. Seventy-five percent of new diseases are transmitted to humans from animals,” the author sums up.

Legionnaires' disease

In 1976, the next convention of the American Legion was held in Philadelphia - this is a public organization created already in 1919 and uniting Americans who took part in various wars. As a result of the meeting, 220 people were hospitalized, 34 of them died from an unknown disease ...

Since then, more than 30 years have passed, and the disease has become known to doctors. But the common man in the street is not particularly told about it. No wonder - after all, panic can lead to a drop in profits for manufacturers of hot tubs, air conditioners and owners of SPA salons.

The fact is that the causative agent of the disease - legionella - spreads with the help of the smallest particles of water (water aerosol), for example, in splashes from a fountain or shower. It is during the summer that most infections occur. Thank God that so far not a single case of transmission of the disease from person to person has been recorded.

In the cooling systems of air conditioners, condensate accumulates, which is heated by the sun to approximately 30 degrees. It is these conditions that are ideal for the reproduction of the pathogen. The most dangerous equipment installed in hotels and hospitals - where the water settles and comes into contact with air.

The same trouble befell the jacuzzi baths. Infection comes from the famous blisters. Having burst, they throw microscopic splashes into the air - it is with their help that Legionella spreads. British doctors examined 88 SPA-salons for bacterial contamination and found pathogens in 23 of them.

Legionnaire's disease proceeds as follows. The incubation period is 5-7 days. The disease can be expressed in various forms: Legionnaires' disease, Pontiac fever, Fort Bragg fever. By the way, all these forms have not been studied enough.

Relatively well, doctors understand legionella pneumonia, i.e. when the bacterium has entered the lungs. This disease develops very quickly. A person has a headache, the temperature jumps to 40, chills begin. Special problems arise if this pneumonia is complicated by pulmonary insufficiency. Then the probability of death increases to 30%. The situation of the patient is further exacerbated by low immunity, stress and smoking.

In principle, legionella pneumonia is not difficult to treat. It is enough to prescribe the desired type of antibiotic to the patient. The only trouble is that all of its symptoms are very similar to the usual inflammation of the lungs. And it is from him that they begin to treat a person. This is where the main danger lies. Naturally, the situation becomes critical if the patient is infected with some less understood form of the disease.

The most common bacterium

Staphylococcus aureus is an extremely well-known and widespread bacterium. Its carrier is the majority of people on the planet. It was first discovered at the end of the 19th century and the name was given for its appearance. "Staphyle" is Greek for a bunch of grapes. One of the types of bacterium staphylococcus aureus, despite the poetic name, is a source of sepsis, pneumonia, abscesses and rotting food.

The bacterium can threaten any organs. It causes skin flaking and cellulite. In the respiratory tract - necrotizing pneumonia. The heart is threatened by endocarditis and pericarditis, the musculoskeletal system - osteomyelitis and infectious arthritis. Even banal conjunctivitis is the “work” of staphylococcus aureus. A trace of its activity in food - toxins - the cause of food poisoning.

He also consistently holds the first place in infection with bacteria in medical institutions. And we are not talking about backward Africa, but about Europe and the USA (about 100 thousand cases of such infection are registered in this country alone). Most often they become infected, of course, people with weak immunity. For example, people with HIV/AIDS. It is not known how many people caught staphylococcus aureus while undergoing surgery outside of medical facilities (for example, when getting tattoos in a salon) is not known.

Until antibiotics were invented, staphylococcus was no less a ruthless killer than poison. When infected with them, the mortality rate was 90%. The use of the antibiotic penicillin solved the problem, but not for long. The bacterium "learned" to produce penicillinase, and the antibiotic was useless. Then a new one was invented - methicillin.

But it is possible that staphylococcus will cope with it. What to do next - the doctors have not yet figured out. The situation is aggravated by the fact that initially all patients are prescribed the same antibiotic, and only then, if it does not work, they begin to figure out why. Sometimes it's too late.

There is little hope for vaccination. But, unfortunately, staphylococcus has protein A, which stops the “immune response”. That is, the body recognizes an enemy bacterium, but cannot destroy it.

Another problem is that vaccination does not give a sustainable result. Nabi Biopharmaceutical has completed clinical trials of StaphVAX in the US. Initially, after application, the vaccine gives a 60% guarantee against infection. And that's pretty good. However, after a year, only 26% of 60% remain.

But even the invention of a hypothetical absolute vaccine will not give 100% protection against bacteria. After all, the one who will be vaccinated should still have normal immunity. What to do with newborn children with HIV or those who are being prepared for transplantation is not clear. But it is these categories that are mainly included in the terrible statistics of those infected with staphylococcus aureus in medical institutions.

Invasion of disease

“Until now, the acquisition of new diseases has taken place over thousands of years - for example, we have malaria and smallpox,” says University of Edinburgh professor Mark Woolhouse. - But today the emergence of new diseases in humans is happening too quickly. Diseases are finding new ways to break the protective functions of our body. Most likely, this situation will continue. In order for nothing to change, we need to run forward as quickly as possible.”

This is an incomplete list of new diseases that have emerged or spread over the past 10 years.

restless leg disease

Restless legs syndrome

It is difficult to say what exactly is affected by the disease. Its essence boils down to the fact that the patient constantly moves his legs, complaining of pain or itching. The situation is especially complicated during sleep. People with an acute form of the disease cannot lie down. Over the past 10 years, the number of cases has increased rapidly.

Dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia

Dyslexia, Dyspraxia. Dyscalculia

Dyslexia is the difficulty in reading and writing in a mentally normal person. It is believed that the cause of such an ailment is the inability to decompose words into constituent sounds. Famous dyslexics are Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Cruise and the current Swedish King Harold.

By analogy, dyspraxia is a lack of coordination of movements or the inability to act according to a pre-arranged plan, and dyscalculia is a problem with counting and the concept of numbers.

Jerusalem Syndrome

Jerusalem syndrome

Religious psychosis associated with visiting the Holy Land. It is carried by approximately 10 out of the 2 million who visit Jerusalem every year. In this case, religion does not matter much. An interesting symptom is the tendency to use hotel linen as a toga. Usually passes in 2-3 weeks after departure from Jerusalem.

Karoshi

Syndrome of Japanese and South Korean clerks. An absolutely healthy person dies right at the workplace, usually from a heart attack. The reason is constant stress and regular overload.

Coulrophobia

Fear of clowns. A person cannot stand the standard appearance of a children's favorite. He is annoyed by makeup, clothing and paraphernalia. It is believed that the reason is the spread of the image of the villain clown in popular culture.

Multiple chemical sensitivity

The most mysterious of the new diseases: neither its nature nor the factors that cause it are clear. And she even has dozens of names. Among the most common are 20th Century Syndrome, Unhealthy Room Syndrome, Toxic Trauma, and Environmental Disease.

The course of the disease is mysterious. Unhealthy sensations like nausea, migraines, and breathing problems occur in patients in response to ultra-low doses of so many completely harmless chemicals, from shampoo ingredients to caffeine. It is also known that multiple chemical sensitivity is not an allergy, because it does not activate type E immunoglobulin cascades characteristic of allergic reactions. How to treat is also completely unclear.

Muscular dysmorphia, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa

Muscle dysmorphia, Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa

Three types of figure obsession. The first for men, the second and third for women.

Leads to unnecessary diets in the weaker sex and excessive bodybuilding in men.

Suffering from anorexia in acute forms are able to starve themselves to death.

With bulimia, a person breaks down and in a short time absorbs a huge number of products. And then, in the stage of repentance, he tries to get rid of what he has eaten with the help of a laxative or emetic.

Dorian Gray Syndrome

Dorian gray syndrome

Fear of aging. Affected by this disease go under the surgeon's knife and can no longer stop. As a rule, everything ends with depression or suicide.

delayed sleep phase syndrome

Delayed sleep phase syndrome

Major modern sleep disorder. A person cannot fall asleep in the evening and wake up normally in the morning.

Capgras syndrome

capgras delusion

Mental disorder. The patient believes that one of his friends or relatives has actually been replaced by an impostor. As a rule, aliens, special services and other monsters are blamed for everything.

Syndrome of disturbed daily sleep cycle

Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome

The body of some people believes that there are not 24 hours in a day, but more. As a result, they shift their sleep time and confuse day with night. This syndrome can also be acquired. If you constantly go to bed at night, the biological clock shifts and during the day a person “nods” and stays awake at night.

Peter Pan Syndrome

Peter Pan Syndro

Severe case of infantilism. Reluctance to grow up. The most famous "Peter Pan" today is Michael Jackson.

Syndrome of constant sexual arousal

Persistent sexual arousal syndrome

Opened in 2001. The discoverer, Sandra Leybloom, sets him apart from hypersexuality and nymphomania. In some situations, the suffering of the patient becomes simply unbearable. The disease is extremely rare. Its study is complicated by the fact that a very small percentage of patients seek medical help.

Medical Student Syndrome

medical student syndrome

One of the types of hypochondria. Feeling that you are experiencing the symptoms of the diseases you read about. Previously, it was mainly doctors who were exposed to it, now, with the development of information technology, ordinary people also suffer from it. If, while reading the article, you “had been ill” with all the diseases described, then you are also susceptible to this disease.

alien hand syndrome

Alien hand syndrome

She's Dr. Strangelove's disease. A complex disorder, as a result of which the hands act on their own, regardless of the wishes of the owner.

Sensitivity

to electromagnetic fields

electrical sensitivity

Those who are susceptible to this disease react heavily to any electromagnetic radiation. Even a mobile phone can cause anxiety. The symptoms are very different. Skin irritation, fatigue and migraine appear.

Ergasiophobia

Ergasiophobia is the fear of acting. If a person does not want to work, it is quite possible that the matter is not in ordinary laziness, but in the fact that a person is sick with this disease. And the work can literally cause nausea.

“A prion is a submicroscopic infectious particle that causes brain degeneration. Unlike viruses built from protein and nucleic acid (DNA and RNA), prions are even smaller protein particles that do not contain molecules of the hereditary substance - nucleic acid. The prion consists mainly, or perhaps entirely, of the abnormal prion protein molecules, which are found predominantly on the surface of nerve cells. The normal prion protein is encoded. However, disruptions in the synthesis of this normal protein result in unusual, atypical molecules that become infectious. The term "prion" comes from the initial letters of English words: proteinaceous - proteinaceous, infective - infectious, on - the ending meaning "particle". (Encyclopedia around the world).

To date, there is no cure for prion diseases. The use of some drugs can only increase the incubation period or prolong the life of the patient by several years.

Help from the encyclopedia:

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), more commonly known as SARS or SARS. At the moment, it is known that the causative agent of SARS is the SARS coronavirus. In total, 8437 cases of the disease were noted, of which 813 were fatal.

Salmonellosis is an acute intestinal infection of animals and humans caused by Salmonella bacteria. The disease has a high mortality rate.

Tick-borne borreliosis, also known as Lyme disease, is a disease carried by ticks. The first sign of the disease is usually acute meningitis - severe headache, photophobia, high fever and vomiting. Muscles are very sore. The disease has a high mortality rate.

Hantavirus is a member of a group of viruses that infect rats, mice, and voles; can lead to the development of disease in humans if the secretions or excrement of these rodents enter their respiratory tract or digestive tract. The disease has a high mortality rate.

money flu

Scientists have found that the flu virus, including its severe forms, can be infected from money. Moreover, it is stored on banknotes for 17 days. And in order to get sick, you don’t have to lick or kiss your favorite paper rectangles. It is enough just to touch them with your fingers first, and then to the mucous membrane of the nose or mouth. So money is literally a dirty thing. There is only one conclusion - wash your hands before eating (and you can even after touching the banknotes; if this is inconvenient for you, do not be discouraged and switch to plastic cards).

Kuru disease. Causes

Kuru disease is a prion disease most commonly seen in individuals who practice endocannibalism.

Kuru disease. Symptoms and manifestations

Kuru disease is a cerebellar syndrome with a characteristic and inexorable progression of neurological impairment through well-defined clinical stages. Kuru disease is an invariably fatal disease. The initial clinical picture includes the onset of headache and joint pain, followed by the following clinical features:

Cerebellar ataxia
Tremor
Involuntary movements (choreoathetosis, myoclonic spasms, fasciculations)
Euphoria, dementia, emotional disturbances and loss of reflexes (in advanced stages of the disease)

As the disease progresses, infected individuals become immobile, and sensory, motor, and cranial nerves atrophy later. At this stage, as a rule, death occurs within 4 months to 2 years. Most patients die within a year of the onset of symptoms.

Compared to other prion diseases, the clinical features of Kuru disease most closely resemble Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The clinical features of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease consist of behavioral, mental, peripheral, and sensory impairments. Common early mental signs include depression, anxiety, insomnia, and apathy.

Physical examination

The physical manifestations of Kuru disease are initially characterized by ataxia and muscle weakness. This leads to shaking in the legs and difficulty in walking, eventually, the victim will be completely dependent on a stick, crutches or a wheelchair. Slow and clumsy movements can lead to fall injuries.

In later stages, the person begins to show signs of mental illness, including loss of emotional control, depression, euphoria, and confusion. Dementia can also occur in some people with kuru disease.

Neurological signs of Kuru disease include: hyperreflexia, impaired grasp reflex, strabismus, and nystagmus. Involuntary muscle twitches and convulsions are observed along with other signs of cerebellar involvement (finger tremors, inability to touch the tip of the nose with a finger, difficulty walking). Ptosis and oculomotor imbalance are observed in a small number of cases. Eventually, people with kuru disease will be bedridden and may not even be able to sit up, raise their heads, or roll over. In later stages, patients lose the ability to chew, swallow, or control excretion. As a result, a person dies either from starvation, or from complicated pneumonia or from infected bedsores.

Kuru disease. Diagnostics

Today, there are no laboratory tests that can accurately diagnose kuru disease, other than post-mortem pathological analysis of CNS tissues.

Kuru disease. Treatment

There is no cure for Kuru disease, any efforts of doctors should be aimed at supporting the patient's condition. Kuru disease is an invariably fatal disease.

Kuru disease. Complications

Individuals with kuru disease gradually become vegetative, followed by death. In most cases, patients die from wound infections, pneumonia, or malnutrition.

The discovery was made by American Carlton Gaidushek, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who was sent to New Guinea to study endemic viral diseases. Among the Fore people, the inhabitants of the highlands far from the sea, Gaidushek saw a disease with striking clinical manifestations: a person shakes for several months, eventually he loses the ability to stand, and trembles while sitting. Then the trembling hits the already recumbent until paralysis and inevitable death come. The natives called the disease “kuru” (stress on the first syllable), which means “trembling”.

The epidemic swept the highlands, knocking out women and children in the first place. By 1956, almost a quarter of the female population of Fore land had died from this trembling. The Fore people were threatened with extinction. And they were pretty nice people, very friendly. True, cannibals. In front of Gaidushek, they cooked human meat and entrails, and ate whole bodies, except for bones and gallbladder.

So they did with their dead, right at the wake. It was believed that the mind and talents of the deceased would go to the people who ate his remains, and his spirit would defend the village. The Fores were very proud of their kindness and the fact that their cannibalism is also good. They were despondent when the authorities in Australia, which then controlled that country, banned cannibalism. But there was hope that the white aliens would learn how to treat the damned shaking.

Gajdushek settled among the Fore, opened a hospital with funds from the Australian Department of Health and his own savings, and began to study death tremors. Since he treated the natives for syphilis and dysentery, he was allowed to do everything - even open the bodies of victims of the kuru and send their organs to America for analysis.

A strange infection of kuru: antibiotics do not take it at all. No fever, no inflammation. The causative agent or at least antibodies in the blood and tissues can not be seen. True, one person noticed something unusual.

He saw Lenin's brain

That was the chief neuropathologist of the National Institute of Nervous Diseases of the USA, Igor Klatzo (1916-2007). Born in St. Petersburg, a Pole by nationality, under the Germans he was one of the commanders of the underground Polish Home Army (AK) in Vilnius. When, together with the Red Army, the Nazis drove the Wehrmacht out of Vilna, Klatzo again found himself underground, now anti-Soviet. He survived because he was preparing the Nuremberg trials, examining the Poles who were deported to Germany for forced labor. And he did it so sensibly that he was noticed by the famous German neurologist Oskar Vogt. He took Klatzo as a student and showed him his unique collection of brain preparations. There were, for example, sections of the brain of Lenin, which Vogt studied at the request of the Soviet government, looking for signs of genius in it.

So, while dissecting the cerebellum of a Foret woman, similar to a sponge due to the death of neurons, Klatzo remembered that he had already seen something similar in the Vogt collection: the brain of a deceased from a rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Now she is famous all over the world as "mad cow disease", and then only 20 cases were described. Clatzo sent a specimen of Foret's cerebellum to a medical exhibition in London. There he was noticed by the English veterinarian Bill Hadlow, and immediately wrote that this spongiform encephalopathy - one to one known since 1732, scrapie - a disease of sheep transmitted to goats. Hadlow suggested that Gaidushek infect the monkeys by feeding them the brains of people who had died from kuru. Gaidushek did just that with five chimpanzees. And also with dozens of chickens, mice, rats, guinea pigs. All to no avail. It remained to think that kuru is a hereditary disease.

It's about cannibalism

To test this hypothesis, anthropologists came from Australia, the Glass family - Robert and Shirley. The couple drew a family tree of the sick and made sure that not all of them are relatives. In addition, before 1910, people did not know any kuru. When the Glasses found this out, their marriage began to disintegrate right in front of the natives. Young people did not stand the test of difficult living conditions in a foreign environment. The Fore women, seeing how Shirley was suffering, were imbued with pity for her. If the natives were afraid of Gaidushek, considering him a great sorcerer, then Mrs. Glass turned out to be an ordinary, not very happy girl. And it created confidence.

There were frank conversations. Stories about how it used to be, with cannibalism. The women explained that adult men took the meat for themselves, and the rest got the brain and entrails. And most importantly, after the ban on the dead, they sometimes still ate in secret. But in the last 4 years (1959-1963) there was not a single case. For this women vouched.

Since then, cases of kuru have decreased, and among the patients there were no small children. It turns out that the point is still in cannibalism: trembling affects those who got the brain. Then it dawned on Gaidushek - not necessarily the infection occurs in the stomach. With the hands that laid raw brains in bamboo tubes, the women then scratched, rubbed their eyes, scratches and bites, caressed the children.

In order not to guess, gruel from the cerebellum of those who died from kuru was injected into the brain of two chimpanzees. Veterinarian Hadlow warned that the infection could have a long incubation period. After 21 months, a female named Georgette showed symptoms of kuru. Georgette's cerebellum caused disease in the next generation in just a year, by January '67. This passage, as in the production of vaccines. But what is this stimulus?

The normal protein necessary for life (left), which our body produces, with an unchanged chemical composition, can turn into a prion (right). Prions kill the nerve cells with which they are in contact, and the space once occupied by neurons is filled with glia. The affected brain tissue resembles a sponge, so the diseases of this family are called "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies."

Brave Gaidushek

Once, back in the days of cannibalism, Gaidushek made his way to the kitchen of cannibals and imperceptibly thrust the maximum thermometer into a bamboo tube, in which the brain of a deceased from kuru was languishing on fire. The device showed that during the entire cooking time the temperature did not rise above 95 degrees. For the death of the virus, even 85 would be enough, but such a temperature was uneasy for the causative agent of kuru.

Gaidushek boldly suggested that kuru was caused by a pathogenic particle, invisible in the then electron microscope. Not only that, he guessed that the causative agents of scrapie and mad cow disease were variants of the same particle. It was isolated only in 1982 and given the name "prion". This is a variant of the "regular" protein, the production of which is programmed in our chromosome number 20. It becomes a prion when its molecule changes its shape with the same chemical composition.

There is a hereditary predisposition to kuru, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has a hereditary form. Not some kind of chromosomal failure, but a real infectious disease is transmitted from grandmother to granddaughter. In 1967, most could not even imagine such a thing. But Gaidushek combined courage with rich imagination. No wonder Gogol was his favorite writer, and living among cannibals, he read Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka before going to bed.

Mikhail Shifrin

In 1932, a Papuan Fore tribe previously unknown to science was discovered in the mountains of New Guinea. This has become a truly invaluable gift for ethnographers and anthropologists, who now, on the basis of "living material", could study the features of the life of primitive tribes.

The gift, of course, is rather dubious. Because the Fore Papuans were not peaceful gatherers of roots or ordinary hunters - they actively practiced cannibalism. Some of their rituals simply shocked the civilized public, especially Christian priests, who dared to poke their nose at these petty cannibals in 1949 with sermons about love for one's neighbor.

Even without priests, the Papuans loved their neighbors very much. True, from a gastronomic point of view. Especially popular among these cannibals was the ritual eating of the brain of a deceased relative. Moreover, in this rite, the main participants were women and children. The Papuans sincerely believed that by eating the brain of their deceased relative, they would acquire his mind, as well as other virtues and virtues.

Eyewitnesses describe this rite as follows: “Women and girls dismember the corpses of the dead with their bare hands. After separating the brain and muscles, they lay them with their bare hands in specially prepared bamboo cylinders, which are then kept for a short time on hot stones in pits dug in the ground ... A little time passes, and women and children begin to crowd around the hearths, impatiently waiting for the cylinders to be finally opened , they will extract the contents and the feast will begin.

One of the then mission workers once saw a little girl who was clearly ill: “She was trembling violently, and her head was spasmodically swaying from side to side. I was told that she was a victim of witchcraft and that this trembling would continue until her death. She won't be able to eat until she dies. She should be dead in a few weeks."

The Fore Papuans called this terrible attack the word "kuru", which in their language has two meanings - "trembling" and "damage". And the reason for kuru is the evil eye of someone else's sorcerer.

But if everything was exclusively in the witch's evil eye ... Of course, official medicine in the person of the American doctor Carlton Gaidushek did not believe in damage. Gaidushek appeared among the Fore tribe in 1957. He was the first to give a scientific description of kuru, which European physicians had never encountered before. At first, the coordination of movements is disturbed in patients, the gait becomes unstable. There is a headache, runny nose, cough, fever.

As the disease progresses, the characteristic symptom of kuru appears, trembling of the limbs and head. In the last stages, coordination is already so disturbed that the person stops moving. All this lasts approximately 10-16 months and ends in death.

Some patients in the last stages had uncontrollable laughter or suddenly appeared crooked smile. This symptom has led some "poets" to call kuru the "laughing" disease.

BRAIN LIKE A SPONGE

Observing the doomed patients, Gaidushek suggested that this disease primarily affects the brain. The autopsy confirmed his guess: in patients with kuru, the brain degraded over several months, turning into a spongy mass. Not a single modern medicine could save the unfortunate: neither antibiotics, nor sulfonamides, nor hormones.

The doctor was at a loss. Even tissue samples sent to America for research could not shed light. Yes, tests have shown that kuru destroys the nerve cells of the cerebellum. But why is this happening? What is the reason? Some kind of infection?

For six whole years, Gaidushek struggled with the riddle of kuru, until he accidentally saw in one scientific journal materials on scrapie, a no less mysterious disease that affects, however, sheep.

Gaudushek immediately noticed that animals that got sick with scrapie died in much the same way as those with kuru. When the researchers introduced brain matter from a sick sheep to a healthy one, the latter got sick. In fact, a year later...

Therefore, it was a delayed infection. And, after analyzing everything, Gaidushek suggested: what if kuru is also one of the similar “slow” infections?

DO NOT EAT YOUR NEIGHBOR

And he turned out to be right! He did almost the same thing that his colleagues with sheep - he introduced an extract of the brain of a patient who died from kuru to two chimpanzees. Chimpanzees got sick, but not after a month, and not even after three or four - the disease manifested itself only after two years!

Gajdushek subsequently found out that kuru did not have the usual infectious signs. And no triggers are visible. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. Gaydushek noticed that mainly women and children suffered from this disease. And men - in very rare cases. And the researcher made the right conclusion - cannibalism is to blame! It is women and children who participate in the ritual eating of human flesh, while the men eat beans and sweet potatoes.

Infected meat is the main source of kuru contamination. As soon as cannibalism was over, the cases of kuru practically disappeared. Gaidusek received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for his sensational research. He donated the money from the prize to the long-suffering And Fore tribe.

DEADLY SLOW

According to some scientists, "slow" viruses are one of the most terrible phenomena of our reality. None of the poisons work on them. They do not die even under irradiation and ultra-high temperatures, from which all living things die.

In size, "slow" viruses are 10 times smaller than the smallest ordinary virus. These internal saboteurs behave in a special way: they undermine the body slowly and gradually, and the diseases they cause are more like wear and tear and self-destruction than a disease.

Today, scientists do not know how to deal with the insidious "slow" viruses. They can only speak with reverence of these newly discovered viruses as "the most mysterious and exciting object of modern medicine."