Discovered cannibalistic tribe in Papua New Guinea

Recent discoveries by scientists may cause everyone to scare. A human-eating tribe in Papua New Guinea is resistant to some neurological diseases by eating the human brain.

The cannibal tribe in Papua New Guinea

The Fore tribe in eastern Papua New Guinea exists separately and has little contact with the outside world. They continue to eat people , men eat skin, and women and children eat brains. This barbaric tradition is the cause of a pandemic of kuru , a mad cow disease-like disease.

Illustration of a tribe in Papua New Guinea - Photo: AFP

The person with kuru will become mad, attack and bite the people around. At the end of the disease, the victim will be coma and die. In the 1950s, the population of this tribe was about 20,000.The epidemic peaked in 1960, each year kuru killed about 2% of the Fore population.

However, scientists have discovered that it is also thanks to eating the brain that Fore people have resistance to some types of neurological diseases. This may open up hope for treatment or prevention of brain disorders like Alzheimer's.

Prion protein under a microscope - (Screenshot of Daily Mail)

Research conducted by scientists at the University of London (UK). They found that eating the human brain caused a genetic mutation that made Fore people immune to kuru. Disease survivors possess a form of protein variant called prion.

This is the first time that a natural kuru-resistant gene mutation has been discovered, said Professor John Collinge, head of the research program.

Fore Race is a good example of people for Darwin's theory of evolution , just a little change in genes can bring resistance against deadly disease, Professor Collinge added.