The 5 Most Infamous Infectious Diseases
Historically, there have been a number of infamous infectious diseases that have made a significant impact on the world, and at times caused severe panic among the public. Here are the 5 most infamous infectious diseases from around the world:
1. Polio
As with many infectious diseases, polio became an epidemic due to increased population density. Polio attacks the nervous system, leaving some victims paralyzed for life. In the 1950s, there were over 13,000 cases of polio resulting in paralysis, along with 1,000 deaths each year. Thankfully, this infectious disease is no longer a problem due to vaccinations. However, in some poor countries, polio remains a problem.
2. Leprosy
Lepers suffer from skin lesions that turn into dying flesh, eventually leading to the possibility of losing limbs, if untreated. The infectious disease is spread by a bacterium named Mycobacterium leprae that affects the peripheral nerves, causing numbness to pain and temperature. It is not highly infected, but has been stigmatized since biblical times. Fortunately, it is easily treated today.
3. Mad-Cow Disease
The swine-flu scare of the 1990s, Mad-cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is an illness caused by prions from cows. Mad-cow disease is spread through contaminated meat of cows suffering from the infectious disease. It causes degenerative neurological symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s, including dementia, loss of body control, and death.
4. Rabies
As a kid, it was not uncommon to hear a classmate shout “That squirrel has rabies! Look how close it is to us!” Rabies has always affected animals, causing a foaming at the mouth, anger, hostility, and insanity. The infectious disease, before Pasteur’s vaccine in 1885, attacked the nervous system and brain of humans. It is spread through the saliva of infected animals. It is extremely rare to find a case of rabies today, due to vaccinations. The problem, then, is that rabies is hard to diagnose, extremely deadly, and very quick acting.
5. HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is the ultimate infectious disease of our time. HIV may take years to develop into AIDS, but when it does, it is devastating. This particular infectious disease attacks the cells in the immune system, causing other infections to feed freely on the host’s body. Without your immune system, common infections or other infectious diseases that are usually fought off become deadly, and often times, fatal.
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