The most terrible executioner of mankind were not wars, but deadly diseases that mow down entire countries. Whether it was the Black Death in 14th century Europe or Ebola in Africa today, the loss of life was astronomical.
We present to you the most terrible diseases of mankind, both already defeated by modern medicine and still raging on Earth.
10. Cholera
This infection of the small intestine is transmitted primarily through drinking water or food containing the feces of an infected person. During the illness, a person begins to have diarrhea, vomiting, the body quickly loses fluid and becomes severely dehydrated, up to and including death.
Globally, about 5 million people are affected and more than 100,000 die from cholera every year.
9. Tetanus
Probably in childhood, your parents told you to carefully look under your feet. Despite its banality, this advice is relevant for adults as well. After all, tetanus infection usually occurs due to wound contamination, for example, after hitting your foot on a rusty nail or other rusty object.
A small scratch or cut is enough for Clostridium tetani to enter the body.
This disease is characterized by prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. It doesn't sound very scary, but as the infection progresses, muscle spasms develop into convulsive contractions of the masticatory muscles (the mouth does not open and stretches into a kind of sardonic smile). And after a while, the functions of respiration and blood circulation are disrupted, and the person dies from asphyxia - respiratory arrest. Even in developed countries, the death rate from tetanus reaches 17-25%, and in unvaccinated people - in 80% of cases.
8. Poliomyelitis
If you are against the vaccination of children, then look at the photo of one of the worst diseases in the world. Perhaps your opinion will change.
In the 1940s and 1950s, before the start of mass vaccination, polio was the worst disease in childhood and was often fatal.
Approximately 72% of people who contract polio have no symptoms. Twenty-five percent develop flu symptoms (eg, sore throat, fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain) within a week or two of infection.
A small proportion of these people develop more serious symptoms such as paresthesia (burning or stabbing pain in the limbs), meningitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord), limb weakness, and paralysis. This can lead to permanent disability and death if the respiratory muscles are affected.
7. Natural (black) smallpox
After vaccination campaigns in the 20th century, smallpox became one of two infectious diseases that were declared completely eradicated (the other was rinderpest). However, before vaccination, according to various estimates, it claimed from 300 to 500 million lives in the 20th century alone.
The picture of the disease looks just awful. At first the patient has a fever, vomiting and headache.Then the body becomes covered with a rash, and not only the skin is affected, but also the internal mucous membranes (rectum, nose, larynx, trachea, urethra, etc.). Soon, the pockmarks turn into erosion. Before the invention of the vaccine, mortality from smallpox was about 40%, and according to some reports, up to 90%.
The last recorded death from smallpox occurred in the UK in 1978, when Variola (the medical name for smallpox) was considered completely defeated.
6. Leprosy (leprosy)
The disease, which was mentioned in the Old Testament, has a long incubation period of two to three years, and symptoms usually begin with numbness or loss of sensation in a specific area of the skin.
Initially, one of the most terrible diseases in the world was considered a curse or punishment from God; in those suffering from leprosy, they were expelled from the settlements and were forced to wear special clothes or ring bells to warn healthy people about their approach.
The symptoms of leprosy vary from person to person and tend to progress over time; ranging from mild hypopigmented skin lesions to blindness, deformation and severe facial disfigurement.
Currently, leprosy is curable and is considered one of the the rarest diseases in the world.
5. Ebola
Among the most terrible human diseases, the most mysterious, perhaps, is Ebola. It is a severe, often fatal disease, with an average death rate of 50%.
Ebola was first discovered in 1976, and bats are believed to be its reservoirs.
The virus spreads easily from animals to humans and spreads rapidly from person to person. Direct contact (through damaged skin or mucous membranes) with an infected person, animal, or objects such as contaminated needles and syringes is the most common way of spreading Ebola.
Symptoms may appear two to 21 days (average 8-10 days) after exposure to the virus and include fever, severe headache, muscle aches and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding and bruising, and death. Survivors develop antibodies that protect them from further infection for at least 10 years.
The worst Ebola outbreak in recent history occurred between 2014 and 2016, predominantly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The number of infected reached 28 616 people, and the deaths - 11 310 people.
4. Spanish flu
Getting sick with the flu is very unpleasant, each of us knows this by himself. And the symptoms of this disease are probably familiar to you. But could hundreds of thousands of people die from the flu? Unfortunately, they can.
Between 1918 and 1920, first in Spain and then around the globe, a deadly outbreak of influenza broke out that infected more than a third of the world's population and killed 20-50 million people. Of the 500 million people infected during the 1918 pandemic, the death rate was estimated at 10-20%.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was significantly different from other influenza outbreaks. Where the flu had always killed juveniles and elderly or already debilitated patients, it began to wipe out hardy and perfectly healthy young people, leaving children and people with weak immune systems alive. In the late stage of the disease, severe bleeding began, due to which the patients literally choked on their own blood.
3. Rabies
It's funny to read headlines like "Fluffy Fox Beauty Brought People Smiles, Frenzy and Death." However, we must remember that rabies is a disease that develops rapidly, and at a certain stage it is no longer possible to save a person.
It is easily transmitted from wild and domestic animals to humans. Moreover, not only a bite is enough, but also saliva getting on the skin. Through microcracks, the virus enters the body.
Bats, foxes and wolves are the most common animals that carry rabies from wild animals, and dogs and cats from domestic animals.The first signs that a wild animal is in pain is its excessive gullibility towards humans, it allows itself to be stroked, deceptively affectionately, and may begin to lick the hands and face of those who play with it. This is the so-called "silent" stage of rabies.
But what happens if a person with rabies does not go to the doctor. Be warned, videos can scare impressionable people, pregnant women and children.
2. AIDS
First identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV infection and the accompanying acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have established themselves as a global pandemic. From then to the present, from 31 to 35 million people worldwide have died from AIDS.
The vast majority of people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population or about 21 million people are infected.
Doctors have developed new treatments that make HIV much more manageable, and many of those infected continue to lead productive and long lives.
1. Bubonic plague
Among the most terrible human diseases, the bubonic plague stands apart. She left a terrible mark on world history, causing changes in the economy, culture, art, medicine and demographic situation. In the Middle Ages, up to 60% of the inhabitants of the European continent died from the Black Death.
There were two pandemics of the bubonic plague that ravaged entire continents.
- Plague of Justinian (541-542) The death toll is 25 million.
It is believed that the plague of Justinian killed possibly half the population of Europe. It was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck the Byzantine Empire and the port cities of the Mediterranean. It is considered to be the first recorded incident of bubonic plague. The Plague of Justinian left its mark on the world, killing up to a quarter of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean and devastating the city of Constantinople by 40%.
- Black Death (1346-1353). The death toll is 75-200 million.
This outbreak of the plague has affected Europe, Africa and Asia. It is believed that the plague originated in Asia, and, most likely, began to "travel" across the continents by means of fleas living on rats, which lived in many on merchant ships. The ports, which were large urban centers at the time, were ideal breeding grounds for rats and fleas, and so the insidious bacteria Yersinia pestis thrived, devastating three continents in its path.