HIV. In the modern world, the deadliest virus of all may be HIV.
1. The Black Death: Bubonic Plague. The Black Death ravaged most of Europe and the Mediterranean from 1346 until 1353. Over 50 million people died, more than 60% of Europe's entire population at the time.
1. Bubonic Plague. Bubonic Plague is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Throughout centuries, the disease has erupted several times in different eras, claiming between ten and millions of lives worldwide.
The Marburg virus is a filovirus (a cousin of Ebola viruses), causing a hemorrhagic fever similar to that of the Ebola virus. Like Ebola, it can be transmitted from person to person, typically through close contact with people who are very sick.
Marburg virus disease. Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a severe and highly fatal disease caused by a virus from the same family as the one that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Both diseases are rare, but can cause dramatic outbreaks with high fatality. There is currently no specific treatment or vaccine.
Ebola virus disease is a rare illness which can cause death. The Ebola virus isn't found in Australia. The Ebola virus is transmitted (spread) through contact with bodily fluids.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
One major difference between Ebola and COVID-19 is the method of spread. Ebola is spread during the last stage of the disease through blood and sweat. In contrast, COVID-19 spreads more easily through breathing, coughing or talking in close contact.
It is believed that African fruit bats are likely involved in the spread of ebolaviruses and may even be the reservoir host. Scientists continue to search for conclusive evidence of the bat's role in transmission of ebolaviruses.
The coexistence of both outbreaks increased the burden on the country's health system mainly because Ebola response programs were redirected to the COVID-19 national response. Strategies adopted and lessons learned from previous Ebola outbreaks were crucial to developing the COVID-19 national response.
dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. advanced lung, heart, kidney and liver disease. stroke and other neurological diseases, including motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Huntington's disease.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is frequently compared with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. The destruction caused by that pandemic a century ago may sound familiar.
Across Earth's history, our planet has been home to an estimated 109 billion human beings. And according to another oft-repeated factoid, half of all the people who have ever existed were killed by malaria, the worst mosquito-borne illness.
No one is immune
That added to the fact that it spreads as easily from person to person as influenza, and infects the upper respiratory system, is what makes it so dangerous. Plus there is no vaccine.
There's no cure for Ebola, though researchers are working on it. There are two drug treatments which have been approved for treating Ebola. Inmazeb is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies (atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn). Ansuvimab-zykl (Ebanga) is a monoclonal antibody given as an injection.
Recovery from Ebola disease depends on good supportive care and the patient's immune response. Investigational treatments are also increasing overall survival. Those who do recover develop antibodies that can last 10 years, possibly longer.
In late November 1989, Ebola virus was isolated from cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) imported into the United States from the Philippines via Amsterdam and New York. During quarantine in a primate facility in Virginia, numerous macaques died, some with findings consistent with simian hemorrhagic fever (SHF).
There's still a small chance occasional cases of Ebola may occur in Africa as the virus is present in several countries there, but the risk for people travelling to Africa is minimal.
With more than 41 million cases of COVID-19 and 1.1 million deaths globally, this pandemic is the worst in more than 100 years, according to Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who gave an overview of the pandemic to date.
In the largest Ebola outbreak in West Africa, there were 28,616 cases of Ebola virus disease and 11,310 deaths, for a death rate of 39.5% (low compared to historic death rates for Ebola Zaire). If we only had 28,616 cases of COVID-19, at the current death rate of 4.1%, that would translate to 1,173 deaths.
Since EVD was first characterized in 1976, there have been 38 country-specific outbreaks, including the outbreak in the DRC. The total estimated EVD deaths from 1976 to 2020 is 15,266. The median number of deaths for all 38 outbreaks is 29 with a range of 0 to 4,809 (Table 1).
The virion nucleic acid of Ebola virus consists of a single-stranded RNA with a molecular weight of approximately 4.0 x 10(6).
ERVEBO® (Ebola Zaire Vaccine, Live also known as V920, rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP or rVSV-ZEBOV) is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of disease caused by Ebola virus (EBOV; species Zaire ebolavirus) in individuals 18 years of age and older as a single dose administration.
Based on the current number of reported cases, the World Health Organization has declared this outbreak, as horrible as it is, as a “public health emergency of international concern.” But not a pandemic. The WHO says the Ebola outbreak poses no “significant” risk to the U.S. public.