Obituaries

D. Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel Prize-winning pediatrician, virologist, and anthropologist who identified the rare disease kuru, which is all but nonexistent today, but was a despicable individual with his unrepentant pedophilia, has died at the age of 85.

More about kuru:

The disease, which caused trembling, sporadic fits of laughter and madness before inevitably leading to death, affected one out of 10 people in the 35,000-member tribe. Autopsies showed that victims' brains were riddled with gaping holes, making their once solid organs resemble sponges -- leading to the general name spongiform encephalopathies for diseases in the class.

The disease was not believed to result from an infection, because victims did not suffer a fever and there were no signs of inflammation -- both indications of classical infections. Most researchers thought kuru was either hereditary or the result of a dietary deficiency.

Gajdusek described the disease in a 1957 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and took samples back to his lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for study. He concluded that the disease was spread during an ancient funerary ritual when women and children consumed the brains of the deceased.

Since that practice was formally banned in 1959, no new cases of the disease have appeared except in those who were exposed before the ban took effect.

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NFL great Sammy Baugh, 94, died today in Rotan, Texas.
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