The cannibal tribe that died laughing

EVER heard of the deadly laughing disease?

In the 1950s, a tribe in Papua New Guinea was hit by an epidemic of a condition called ‘laughing death’, which caused individuals to randomly experience bursts of hysterical laughter.

An episode would cause their limbs to shake and their bodies to sway and stumble. Within a few months of the first episode, patients became unable to speak or walk. Eventually they died.

Subsequent tests showed that patients had developed holes in their brains, which caused their mental deterioration and death.

On further investigation, US doctor Daniel Carleton Gajdusek discovered that the tribe engaged in cannibalism which triggered the condition.