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But there are other viruses out there that are equally deadly, and some that are even deadlier. Some viruses, including the novel coronavirus currently driving outbreaks around the globe, have lower fatality rates, but still pose a serious threat to public health as we don't yet have the means to combat them. Here are the 12 worst killers, based on 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.
According to the World Health Organization WHO , the Marburg virus was first identified by scientists in , when small outbreaks occurred among lab workers in Germany who were exposed to infected monkeys imported from Uganda.
Marburg virus symptoms are similar to Ebola in that both viruses can cause hemorrhagic fever, meaning that infected people develop high fevers, and bleeding throughout the body that can lead to shock, organ failure and death, according to Mayo Clinic.
The first known Marburg virus outbreak in West Africa was confirmed in August The case was a male from south-western Guinea, who developed a fever, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and gingival hemorrhage. This outbreak lasted for six weeks and, while there were high-risk contacts, only one case was confirmed, according to Reuters.
In , the first known Ebola outbreaks in humans struck simultaneously in the Republic of the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola is spread through contact with blood or other body fluids, or tissue from infected people or animals. The known strains vary dramatically in their deadliness, Elke Muhlberger, an Ebola virus expert and associate professor of microbiology at Boston University, told Live Science.
The outbreak underway in West Africa began in early , and is the largest and most complex outbreak of the disease to date, according to the WHO. In December , the Ervebo vaccine was approved by the U. Food and Drug Administration. This vaccine helps to defend against the Zaire ebola virus and a global stockpile became available from January Although rabies vaccines for pets, which were introduced in the s, helped to make the disease extremely rare in the developed world, this condition remains a serious problem in India and parts of Africa.
Infection from this virus develops after a bite or scratch from an infected animal. This can result in damage to the brain and nerves. In the modern world, the deadliest virus of all may be HIV. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of America. An estimated 32 million people have died from HIV since the disease was first recognized in the early s. Powerful antiviral drugs have made it possible for people to live for years with HIV.
In , there were , HIV-related deaths worldwide. In , the World Health Assembly declared the world free of smallpox. But before that, humans battled smallpox for thousands of years, and the disease killed about 1 in 3 of those it infected, according to the BBC. It left survivors with deep, permanent scars and, often, blindness.
In populations outside of Europe, where people had little contact with the virus before visitors brought it to their regions, mortality rates were much higher. In the 20th century alone, smallpox killed million people, the BBC reported. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome HPS first gained wide attention in the U.
A few months later, health authorities isolated hantavirus from a deer mouse living in the home of one of the infected people. More than people in the U. The virus is not transmitted from one person to another, rather, people contract the disease from exposure to the droppings of infected mice. Previously, a different hantavirus caused an outbreak in the early s, during the Korean War, according to a paper in the journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews. While the virus was new to Western medicine when it was discovered in the U.
During a typical flu season, up to , people worldwide will die from the illness, according to WHO. But occasionally, when a new flu strain emerges, a pandemic results in a faster spread of disease and, often, higher mortality rates.
Dengue virus first appeared in the s in the Philippines and Thailand and has since spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe, according to Clinical Microbiology Reviews. A vaccine for Dengue was approved in by the U. Food and Drug Administration for use in children years old living in areas where dengue is common and with a confirmed history of virus infection, according to the CDC. In some countries, an approved vaccine is available for those years old, but again, recipients must have contracted a confirmed case of dengue in the past.
Those who have not caught the virus before could be put at risk of developing severe dengue if given the vaccine. Two vaccines are now available to protect children from rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrheal illness among babies and young children. The virus can spread rapidly, through what researchers call the fecal-oral route meaning that small particles of feces end up being consumed.
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