Brain Eating Amoebas!!!

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I don't normall follow, watch, or trust Fox news, butthis is too good to pass up:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298338,00.html


Lets get the movie rights.
-Ed

[Torgo]

Someone needs to make that into a movie.

[Dr. Whom]

The concept of brain eating parasites was explored in passing in Slugs (the scene with the guy in the restaurant)

[Raffine]

Oh, excuse me.

I thought this was a thread about 'The View'.

[Jason]

Isn't there a similar kind of condition that affects the cannibal natives of one of the South Sea islands? I can't remember too much about it without doing some research on it, and that would be far too much effort considering it's barely 8am. I think the natives call it kuru and it's caused by rogue proteins or something.

[Raffine]

Isn't there a similar kind of condition that affects the cannibal natives of one of the South Sea islands? I can't remember too much about it without doing some research on it, and that would be far too much effort considering it's barely 8am. I think the natives call it kuru and it's caused by rogue proteins or something.

This'll kill ya!

It's also known as "Laughing Sickness" or "Trembling Sickness" and there's been several epidemics of it in Papua New Guinea . It's believed to be transmitted by the practice of eating the brains of dead relatives and it's always fatal. 

Some spoil-sport scientists now believe ritual cannibalism  never existed in New Guinea and the disease was spread by contact with dead bodies during burial preparations.

[Khaz]

Sounds kinda like Mad cow desease for people.. Wasn't Mad cow started due to feed containing brains and spinal cords from animals that weren't used? Symptoms are even similar..

[raj]

So would zombies have to worry about these diseases?

Mad Zombie Disease! 

[Jason]

This'll kill ya!

It's also known as "Laughing Sickness" or "Trembling Sickness" and there's been several epidemics of it in Papua New Guinea . It's believed to be transmitted by the practice of eating the brains of dead relatives and it's always fatal. 

Some spoil-sport scientists now believe ritual cannibalism  never existed in New Guinea and the disease was spread by contact with dead bodies during burial preparations.

Yeah, that's the one. I'm not entirely convinced about it being spread by contact with dead bodies, however... surely if this was the case then it would be all over the place in third world countries with similar burial arrangements, rather than simply isolated to a single South Sea Island?

[AndyC]

This'll kill ya!

It's also known as "Laughing Sickness" or "Trembling Sickness" and there's been several epidemics of it in Papua New Guinea . It's believed to be transmitted by the practice of eating the brains of dead relatives and it's always fatal. 

Some spoil-sport scientists now believe ritual cannibalism  never existed in New Guinea and the disease was spread by contact with dead bodies during burial preparations.

Yeah, that's the one. I'm not entirely convinced about it being spread by contact with dead bodies, however... surely if this was the case then it would be all over the place in third world countries with similar burial arrangements, rather than simply isolated to a single South Sea Island?

Sounds like Kreutzfeld-Jakob disease. Basically mad-cow for people. The X-Files had an episode about a town full of cannibals afflicted with it. Nasty disease - can't be avoided by cooking or other usual methods. Eats holes in your brain until it looks like a sponge.

As for the brain-eating amoebas, I'm sure House treated a case of that in the second season. Guy watering his cannabis crop with roof runoff contaminated by pigeon poo or something like that.

[Khaz]

This'll kill ya!

Yeah, that's the one. I'm not entirely convinced about it being spread by contact with dead bodies, however... surely if this was the case then it would be all over the place in third world countries with similar burial arrangements, rather than simply isolated to a single South Sea Island?

Sounds like Kreutzfeld-Jakob disease. Basically mad-cow for people. The X-Files had an episode about a town full of cannibals afflicted with it. Nasty disease - can't be avoided by cooking or other usual methods. Eats holes in your brain until it looks like a sponge.

As for the brain-eating amoebas, I'm sure House treated a case of that in the second season. Guy watering his cannabis crop with roof runoff contaminated by pigeon poo or something like that.

Yeah! Thats the name I was looking for! I knew I had heard of this somewhere.
Sorry about jacking this a bit, just wanted to give props to Andy for setteling an at work argument we had going on here.