When stranded people eat human meat, does cooking it kill any and all diseases in the meat?

r/

What I mean is if you don’t know someone’s medical history in an emergency, would cooking the meat neutralise all the nasties?

Comments

  1. Pinky_Boy Avatar

    mostly yes

    i dont think it could kill prions, but just avoid the brain and you’re good

  2. Manicwoodchipper Avatar

    I’ve never had any problems.

  3. CaptainPoset Avatar

    Most of them, but some it won’t.

    That’s not so much a case of humans eating humans, but a general problem with eating carnivores: What makes them ill makes most carnivores or omnivores ill, including humans.

    There are a few germs which can survive dry surroundings for a prolonged period of time in a spore form which makes them rather invulnerable to heat, too.
    That’s why you need to heat canned goods twice during canning or to a temperature significantly above the boiling point of water at atmospheric pressure.

  4. MissQ1982 Avatar

    It famously does not. Look up ‘Kuru.’

  5. Stephen_1984 Avatar

    https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/diseases/cwd/what-are-prions/

    >Prions are very hearty proteins. They can be frozen for extended periods of time and still remain infectious. To destroy a prion it must be denatured to the point that it can no longer cause normal proteins to misfold. Sustained heat for several hours at extremely high temperatures (900°F and above) will reliably destroy a prion.

  6. cult777 Avatar

    Kuru is found among people from New Guinea who practiced a form of cannibalism in which they ate the brains of dead people as part of a funeral ritual

  7. coffeewiththegxds Avatar

    I’m alerting the authorities