We live in a world where recently a massive global pandemic had occurred. It has caused more than 3 million deaths around the world by 2022. Within a period of two years we have transformed completely into an alien lifestyle. Wearing a mask has become part of our outfit. Hand sanitizers have become one of the most sold items in the past year. Because we all feared the COVID 19 virus, which infects people with an unimaginable speed. But did you know that Corona Virus is not considered as the most deadliest virus. The list of viruses I will be stating in this article are considered more dangerous than the new Corona Virus. The highest fatality ratio for the COVID is about 5-6%, while the following viruses have much higher rates compared to COVID virus.
Ebola Virus
The first known case of Ebola virus infection was recorded in 1976. It was reported in both Sudan and Congo. Ebola has 50% of mortality rate, which means that there is a 50% chance of patient dying if he or she was not treated well. Usually the patient dies due to the shock from fluid loss. There are vaccines have been developed to prevent the disease. Since its identification in 1976 there have been several major outbreaks in the past. Last year total of 16 confirmed cases and 12 deaths have been reported due to an outbreak in Guinea.
Rabies Virus
Rabies is a disease that causes inflammation of the brain in mammals, which is caused by rabies virus. The disease was known to human since 2000BC. Rabies is preventable disease but fatal once the symptoms start showing up. The symptoms include Fever, fear of water, confusion, excessive salivation, hallucinations, trouble sleeping, paralysis and coma. The mortality rate is 99.9% once the symptoms started to show. The exposure to the virus has been decreased due to the vaccine programs and animal control programs. In Latin rabies means “madness” a completely accurate word to describe a person or an animal infected with rabies. There are about 60,000 deaths are recorded worldwide, but mainly in Asia and Africa. The main source of the virus is the dogs, which could be your own pet. So, it is important to vaccinate your pets for rabies.
HIV/AIDS Virus
Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome or HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in 1981 and since then over 36 million deaths have been reported. The HIV virus attacks the human immune system, which does the most important job when an virus infects our body. It is like attacking and destroying an army in a country before invading it. The virus could transmit through sex which is the most frequent method. Also it can transmit through exchange of bodily fluids, such as blood and from a mother to her child. Up to this date there is no exact cure has been found against the virus.
Dengue Virus
Dengue is disease caused by dengue virus, which is categorized as a tropical disease. Millions of Dengue patients are reported each year. Even though the mortality rate is as low as 2%, there are more than 10,000 deaths are reported annually since the mortality rate rises up to 20% when left untreated. Dengue is mosquito borne disease. The symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, rash Bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and dangerously low blood pressure.
Marburg virus
The Marburg virus was identified in the 1967 in Germany. Lab workers in a Germany were exposed to this virus through imported monkeys that were already infected. The monkeys were imported from Uganda and after the infection there were small outbreaks. It can cause hemorrhagic fever.
Hemorrhagic fever means that the infected can have high fever and bleeding throughout the whole body which can lead to shock and then organ failure and eventually death. The initial death rate of the first outbreak in 1967 was 24% but there was another outbreak in the Republic of Congo during the late 90s’ which has death rate of 83%. The third outbreak which was Uganda in 2017 had 100% death rate which means almost everyone died who were infected.
Now you know that the COVID 19 virus is not the most dangerous virus in the world even though it caused a global pandemic. All of these viral diseases have been controlled but not completely cured. It might take sometime to cure these viral diseases completely. But in today most of those do not have a cure. All we could do is hold on until our own body fights back. That is the most important step if we were to infect with one of them. But for viral diseases like Rabies or HIV, waiting for our immune system to fight back does not help. So remember, Prevention is better than cure.
Facts and DIY 