• Question: Which disease is the deadliest disease to have infected humans and how did it affect us?

    Asked by anon-220435 to Ettie on 8 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Ettie Unwin

      Ettie Unwin answered on 8 Jun 2019:

      Really great question – but the answer isn’t very clear cut. A disease being deadly can be thought of in at least two ways:
      1) It kills nearly everyone who gets it
      2) It may not kill everyone who gets it but it spreads very easily between humans so lots of people get it.

      One example of a disease of type 2 is flu (or its full name influenza). Last year was the 100 year anniversary for the flu outbreak typically known as Spanish flu after world war one. This was a pandemic (cases of the disease were found all around the world) and about 50 million people died. The type of flu that was around that year is related to the flu we still get, but was particularly bad. It spread fast and caused similar but more serious symptoms than the temperatures, sore throats and muscle aches you get now. There is a danger that a flu closely related to the Spanish flu will come back again and could cause massive deaths across the world. Thats why people in my department are trying to use maths to predict the chance of this happening and work with vaccine developers to try and stop it happening. Flu enters the human population from birds and sometimes pigs – hence you may have heard of swine and bird flu.

      In my opinion type 1 diseases are more deadly. A type of disease like this is Ebola. Unfortunately most people who get this disease die because there is no treatment and only trial vaccines. There is currently an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. People in my department and I are working with the world health organisation to analyse live data about this. It is thought that Ebola comes from bats – either a human is bitten by one or eats some meat from an animal that either ate an infected bat or was bitten too. It spreads through bodily fluids so health care workers and families can be at great risk. Also people in these cultures show respect to the dead by touching and kissing the bodies – this is another huge source of cross infection .

Comments

  • Photo: Rebecca

    Rebecca commented on :

    What an interesting question. I think obesity is a really important disease that is contributing to death in many people. Obesity is the second biggest risk factor for cancer after smoking, and also liked to cardiovascular disease (eg heart attacks and strokes), metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, bone and joint problems. We know that by the time children start school at age 4, 1 in 5 is overweight or obese, and by the time they reach secondary school at age 11 1 in 4 is overweight or obese. About a quarter of adults in the UK are obese too. Given how frequent it is and how many medical problems it is related too, I’d say it’s pretty deadly.

  • Photo: Matthew

    Matthew commented on :

    Excellent question! In terms of size and global impact I would say that the Bubonic plague or the black death is high up on this list! without treatment, it kills between 30-90% of those infected and it killed an estimated 30-60% of the population of the whole of Europe during the 14th century! It is much less common now, but It is still around! It causes flu-like symptoms and swollen, painful lymph nodes.

    In more recent times, the Ebola virus would be high on the list, It causes a haemorrhagic fever, which starts off with a high temperature (fever), headache, joint and muscle pain a sore throat and
    severe muscle weakness. this is followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, a rash, stomach pain and reduced kidney and liver function can follow. The person may then bleed internally, and may also bleed from the ears, eyes, nose or mouth.There’s currently no proven treatment or vaccine for Ebola, which makes it extremely deadly!