Incredibly, there are viruses even deadlier than Ebola. LiveScience's list ranks these viruses in terms of "the likelihood that a person will die if they are infected with one of them, the sheer numbers of people they have killed, and whether they represent a growing threat."
Here are the viruses:
Marburg Virus
This virus may have been the inspiration for the outbreak in the movie 28 Days Later as it first occurred among lab workers in Germany in 1967 who were exposed to monkeys imported from Uganda. The Marburg virus has similar symptoms to Ebola including high fevers and internal hemorrhaging that can lead to death. Recent outbreaks of the Marbug virus have had fatality rates of 80% and higher.
This virus may have been the inspiration for the outbreak in the movie 28 Days Later as it first occurred among lab workers in Germany in 1967 who were exposed to monkeys imported from Uganda. The Marburg virus has similar symptoms to Ebola including high fevers and internal hemorrhaging that can lead to death. Recent outbreaks of the Marbug virus have had fatality rates of 80% and higher.
Rabies
Rabies causes acute inflammation of the brain resulting in what appears like "crazy" behavior such as uncontrolled excitement and confusion. In most parts of the Western world, we are lucky enough to have easy access to the rabies vaccine. However, in parts of India and Africa where the vaccine is less accessible, the likelihood of fatality in a person bitten by a rabies-infected animal is almost 100%.
Rabies causes acute inflammation of the brain resulting in what appears like "crazy" behavior such as uncontrolled excitement and confusion. In most parts of the Western world, we are lucky enough to have easy access to the rabies vaccine. However, in parts of India and Africa where the vaccine is less accessible, the likelihood of fatality in a person bitten by a rabies-infected animal is almost 100%.
HIVAlthough much has been done to bring awareness of HIV to people around the world in the past few decades, the stats LiveScience referenced are quite frankly shocking:
- An estimated 36 million people have died from the disease since it was first recognized in the early 80s.
- According to WHO, nearly 1 in 20 adults in Sub-Saharan Africa is HIV-positive.
SmallpoxThankfully, the world is now free of smallpox thanks to the world's first vaccine developed in the late 1700s, but during its time on earth, it was a relentlessly deadly killer, killing 1 in 3 people infected. It is most well known for being brought to the New World by Europeans and causing the decimation of 90% of the native American population. Here's a thought to keep you up at night: there are fears that the few remaining cells of the disease in Petri dishes could be used in biological warfare.
HantavirusHantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) first caught the attention of the world in 1993 when a young man died a few days after developing shortness of breath. The death was eventually linked to the droppings of a deer mouse living in the house. As of now, 600 people in the U.S. have contracted hantavirus from mouse droppings and 36% have died from it. As if anyone needed another reason to freak out about having mice...
Influenza
Here's why your mom always insisted you got your flu shot: "during a typical flu season up to 500,000 people will die from the illness." The real danger is when a new flu strain emerges for which there is no vaccine. During the Spanish flu pandemic, 40% of the world's population became infected and roughly 50 million died. That is roughly the entire population of South Korea.
Here's why your mom always insisted you got your flu shot: "during a typical flu season up to 500,000 people will die from the illness." The real danger is when a new flu strain emerges for which there is no vaccine. During the Spanish flu pandemic, 40% of the world's population became infected and roughly 50 million died. That is roughly the entire population of South Korea.
DengueDengue first emerged in the Phillippines and Thailand and spread to multiple tropical and subtropical regions largely via mosquitoes. The fatality rate for dengue fever is fairly low, 2.5%, but the fever can turn into a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, which has a fatality rate of 20% if left untreated. Dengue is making it onto the radar of a lot more health professionals as global warming increases the likelihood of its spread.
RotavirusRotavirus is a diarrheal illness that largely affects babies in developing areas of the world where access to water is not widespread. In 2008, it was estimated that 453,000 children younger than age 5 deid from the disease. The virus is spread via the fecal-oral route, which is unfortunately more of a thing than we like to believe. Two vaccines are now available for the disease and countries that have introduced them have seen major declines in hospitalization and deaths due to the disease.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question: How worried do we need to be about deadly viruses erupting into worldwide pandemics?
Disrupt Your Feed: We need to do more to bring the vaccines we enjoy in the Western world to countries where tens of thousands of people are dying unnecessarily every year..
Drop This Fact: The strain of the Ebola virus that is driving the current epidemic is called Ebola Zaire.
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