Deadliest Viruses on Earth

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 have the means to combat them. There are other viruses out there that are equally deadly, and some that are even deadlier. For some viral diseases, vaccines and antiviral drugs have allowed us to keep infections from spreading widely, and have helped sick people to recover.

In recent decades, several viruses have jumped from animals to humans and triggered sizeable outbreaks, claiming thousands of lives around the globe. So here are the list of  deadliest viruses who have the capability that a person would die if they are infected with one of them.

Marburg Virus

Marburg virus was identified by scientists in 1967, when small outbreaks occured among lab workers in germany who were exposed to infected monkeys imported from Uganda. Marburg virus is similar to Ebola virus in that both can cause hemorrhagic fever, meaning that infected people develop high fever and bleeding through the body that can lead to shock, organ failure and death.

In first outbreak its mortality rate was 25%, but it was more than 80% in the 1998-2000 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in the 2005 outbreak in Angola, according to the WHO (World Health Organization).

 

Ebola Virus

The first know Ebola outbreaks in the humans struck simultaneously in the Republic of the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. Ebola is spread through contact with blood or other body fluids, or tissues from infected people or animals. The outbreak underway in West Africa began in early 2014, and is the largest and most complex outbreak of the disease to date, according to WHO.

The known strains vary dramatically in their deadliness. One strain, Ebola Reston, doesn't even make people sick. But for the Bundibugyo strain, the fatality rate is up to 50%, and it is up to 71% for the Sudan strain, according to WHO.

Rabies

Rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals. Rabies caused about 17,400 human deaths worldwide in 2015.

More than 95% of human deaths from rabies occur in Africa and Asia. As of 2016, only fourteen people had survived a rabies infection after showing symptoms.

The Rabies Vaccine and sometimes (rabies immunoglobulin) are effective in preventing the disease if the person receives the treatment before the start of rabies symptoms and if you don't get treatment, there's a 100% possibility you will die.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of Lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In the modern world, the deadliest virus of all may be HIV. "It is still the one that is the biggest killer," said Dr. 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 1980s.

Small Pox

The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the Global eradication of the disease in 1980. The initial symptoms of the disease included fever and vomiting. This was followed by formation of sores in the mouth and a skin rash.
The disease killed about 1 in 3 of those it infected. It left survivors with deep, permanent scars and, often, blindness.

Historians estimate 90% of the native population of the Americas died from smallpox introduced by European explorers. In the 20th century alone, smallpox killed 300 million people.

Hantavirus

 

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents and can cause varied disease syndromes in people worldwide. Infection with any hantavirus can produce hantavirus disease in people. Hantaviruses in the Americas are known as “New World” hantaviruses and may cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). It gain wide attention in U.S in 1993. 

The disease is not airborne and can only infect people if they come in contact with urine, feces, and saliva of rodents and less often by a bite from an infected host.