Below, are 10 Diseases That Could Wipe Out Humanity At any time.
10)Ebola Virus:
Ebola seems to be the buzzword of 2014.When This apocalyptic disease spread through out west Africa at an alarming rate.The epidemic mainly hit the Liberia,Seirra leone and Guinea With similar outbreak occurring elsewhere.It is Thought that
spread by fruit bats which Host The Disease and Infect Animals Like Monkey and Chimpanzees and Gorrilas.These Infected animals are then handled and eaten by Humans as bush meat Leading to human transmission.The Fatality rate Was thought To be As High As 70% with Symptoms Leading To A decrease In Liver And Kidney Function And Causing Both Internal and External Bleeding.The Death Toll Reach More Then 11000 In Just 2 Years.
9)Swine Flu:
The Director General Of The World health organization Described The 2009 spread of swine flu As “the First pandemic of 21 century”.The Virus Which First Emerged In 2009 in Mexico Quickly Become A Global Pandemic That Spread To 214 Countries And Caused Upto 20,3000 Deaths.
The Flu Strain Also Known As H1N1,Was A unique Mutation;Genetically Similar To A Mixture Of Swine Avian And Human Flu.And Scientist Remain Wary As To How The Virus Would Continue To Mutate During Flu Season.
Unlike Other Human Flu Strains Healthy Young People And Pregnant Women Were Most Vulnerable To The Virus,Due To The Lack of Natural immunization.Swine Flu Patients Suffered From Rapid Deterioration Which Caused Pneumonia or Respiratory Failure.
8)Marburg virus :
A highly fatal disease, The marburg virus is among the most harmful pathogens known to infect humans.The first outbreak on record occurred as recently as 1967.It struck the German towns of marburg And Frankfurt, As well as Belgrade, The capital of Serbia.After Gwrman workers were exposed to the tissue of infected monkeys.The virus caused its victims to experience flu like symptoms which quickly escalated leading to patient skin peeling off , which caused profuse bleeding. Although the 1967 outbreak was contained the virus occasionally resurfaces most notably in the late 90s in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in 2005 in Angola.
7) The plaque:
One of the most devastating pandemic in human history,The black death killed up to 60% of Europe between 1346 And 1353.The devastating disease spread along maritime trade routes.it was carried by an infected with plaque carrying fleas that traveled abroad merchant ships.many plaque victims died with in just two days of development the harrowing symptoms:; Which include rashes,Fever, Vomiting blood and grotesquely swollen lymph glands.while today the plaque is no longer at pandemic level, the disease hasn’t been eradicated and a handful of people continue to catch the plaque from mice each year in US and other part of the world.
6)Pox:
A Disease That Has existed since 10,000 BC –The Highly Infectious Small Pox –Was Gloably Eradicated In 1980.The Disease Known For Causing Fluid Filled Blisters,Had An Overall Fatality Rate Of 30% And Also Caused a Host Of Complications Such As Blindness Or pneumonia.Despite Its Eradication ,There Are Fears That The Pox Could Be Resurrected And Used As Bio-weapon.In 2001 an Australian Research Team accidentally created a modified Form Of Mouse Pox With The IL-4 Gene Which Had A 100% Killed Rate For The Mice Exposed To It.Reaserch Scientist Ron Jackson Stated That If This Gene Was Inserted Into Human Small Pox It Would Be safe To assumed That the gene would increase The Lethality Quite Dramatically.
5)SARS (Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome):
It Is A highly Contagious And Life Threatening Virus Originating in china in 2002 The Virus Is Thought To Have Emerged After an Animal Strain Mutated.Which Enabled It To Infect Humans.With No Know Treatment The Infection Quickly Spread To Other asian Countries Even UK And Canada.There Were 8000 Reported Deaths With a 1 In 10 chance Of Fatality At The Time.The Airborne Virus Was Extremly contagious and spread to the small droplets of a sneeze or cough.The Infection Cause Flu Like Symptoms Which Leads To Lungs Infection,Restricting the oxygen in blood.
4)Drugs Resistant Bacteria:
The Development Of Antibiotic has been instrumental in increasing the human lifespan.Bacterial meningitis ,organ transplants and even simple diseases all carried much higher fatality rate before antibiotics came along.But Antibiotic Have come at a price.Bacteria-like all other organisms are able to evolve.Infact they do so in incredible rate.Some muatate In About 20 minutes.Because of This ,They Are Slowly Aquiring a resistance To antibiotics.Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Currently Infect More Then 2 million People In The US Alone With Aproximately 23000 Of Those infected dying.One of the most infamous of these drug resistant bacteria is methicillin Resistant –Staphylococcus Aureus ,Better Known As MRSA.
According Center For Disease Control 80,000 American Are infected by MRSA Every Year While Most recover ,Almost 11000 Of these People Die.
3)Spanish Flu:
One Of The deadliest Natural Disaster In Human History,The 1918 Flu Pandemic Infected Half a Billion People Ultimately Wiping Out 50 Millions Worldwide.First Surfacing During World War 1 ,The Virus Was able to Spread globally As soldiers Travelled To new Locations In Order to fight.This Virus Was Especially Deadly To young healthy adults.As it infected people by overstimulating Their Immune System And turning them against their bodies.The symptoms were so sever that The Virus Would cause hemorrhages.This would Cause Patients To bleed Perfusely From Their Ear or Nose with Those Unable To Recover Eventaully Drowned In Their Own Body Fluids.
2) Tuberculosis:
An incredible one third of the world population is thought to be infected with TB.The ancient Disease has been Plaguing mankind since the begining of recorded Human history.An almost Certain Death Sentence If Left untreated ,those with active TB suffer symptoms of a chronic ,bloody cough and waste away ,due to rapid weight loss.In 1994 the first succefull anti-TB Drugs Arrived ,Leading To a Decline In the Disease.However even with the dawn of modern medicine Tb Has Proved Immposible To eradicate With patients needing to take multiple combinations of antibiotics in order to cure it.This type of treatment has proved difficult to oversee in the developing world,Where it ravishes the poor and prisoners.Further more TB In HIV Positive Patients forms a deadly combination,which is resistant to most drugs.
1)HIV:
Many people who are HIV Positive are unaware that they are infected with the virus Which allows it to spread widely before anyone is aware of its existence.Thought to have been transmitted to humans from champanzees back in the 1800s it was only discoverd to be the AIDS Causing Virus in 1983.These HIV infection,left untreated ,leads to the failure of the immune system;which leaves the body volunerable to infection and cancer.Currently 36.7 million People live with the disease.The virus is spread through bodily fluids,including sexual transmission and blood which is a relatively difficult transmission method.However should the virus mutate to spread in simpler ways ,it could be catastrophic.
Our Question From Our Readers Is Could A Pandemic Wipe Out Humanity ?
Sources:
WHO
CDC
NHS