Laughing to Death

The Absolutely Horrifying Story Behind Kuru Laughing Sickness

Dale M. Brumfield
Lessons from History
6 min readJan 4, 2021

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Kuru victims, early 1960s.

AMERICAN PHYSICIAN AND VIROLOGIST Daniel Carleton Gajdusek listened intently as Vincent Zigas, a district medical officer in the Fore Tribe region of Papua, New Guinea, described a devastatingly fatal illness he had been observing.

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Dale M. Brumfield
Lessons from History

Anti-death penalty advocate, cultural archaeologist, “American Grotesk” historyteller and author of 12 books. More at www.dalebrumfield.net.