Worst Diseases - The Body Count

Here is a killer list of major human diseases in our history. As you can see, Bubonic plague must have really seemed like the end of the world. These days we get worried when 5 or 6 people die of some unknown disease.

One of the worst ways for the human population to be thinned is to die from disease. Millions of people each year have perished as a result of one of any number of seemingly unstoppable diseases

The Black Death - 75 million Deaths
Polio - 10,000 Deaths since 1916
Smallpox - Native Americans suffer a population drop from 12 Mil. to 235,000
Cholera - 12000 deaths since 1991
Ebola - 160 000 deaths since 2000
Malaria - 2.7 Million Deaths per year-2800 children per day
Bubonic Plague - 250 million (1/3 of world population at the time)
Spanish Flu - 1918-1919 20 to 100 million
Influenza - 36000 deaths per year
AIDS - 25 million since 1981
Article 1

Fascinating list.

I see that AIDS is one of the major diseases, comparable to the others (although the western countries can't completely appreciate that, since most of the deaths are occurring in remote places.)

I recently read an article that said smallpox, while thought to be completely eradicated, might still exist in large quantities, laying dormant in frozen Siberian gravesites, and other places on this planet.

This is one of those issues that clearly demonstrates how out-of-touch we are with the past. When was the last time any large group of people felt the panic that comes with any deadly epidemic? I can't imagine that. It is something I hope we never have to experience, but history shows it happens all the time.

Edit: I see you are in South Africa, so I guess you probably have a deeper appreciation and understanding of the AIDs epidemic than I do. I understand it is at truly terrible proportions -- even in modern ZA.


[edit on 9-10-2008 by Buck Division]

I think we are very lucky to have organisations like the World Health Organisation and the American CDC. They are very alert to what is happening in the world and quickly move in to advise local governments when requested (note: requested).
I don't ever think that we will get a global pandemic as we had in with Spanish Flu because of this. However there still exists the possibility of huge deaths for a disease that is airborne as well as transmitted by touch, fluiods etc.

A billion deaths will still not be as bad as the Bubonic plague (in terms of percentage of total population), however it will still be completely devastating.

reply to post by Buck Division

I see you are in South Africa, so I guess you probably have a deeper appreciation and understanding of the AIDs epidemic than I do. I understand it is at truly terrible proportions -- even in modern ZA.

It is strange but we have become so complacent to AIDS ... it is still not a disease that we come face to face with every day. It is still all about education.

In the city you don't notice much but when you drive to the rural areas, many villages are decimated.

It is even estimated that over 1/3 of the South Africa Defence Force has been infected. That's scary stats for you.
SA AIDS Stats



[edit on 9-10-2008 by deltaalphanovember]

Originally posted by deltaalphanovember
It is strange but we have become so complacent to AIDS ... it is still not a disease that we come face to face with every day.

That is a really interesting comment. Complacency is a close friend of any epidemic, as is ignorance (as you say.)

This complacency probably exists, at least in part, because people understand how people get AIDS, and it doesn't strike totally at random, like polio or smallpox. And also, it takes time to begin showing symptoms. (That doesn't help the people with AIDS and HIV, of course.)

It is even estimated that over 1/3 of the South Africa Defence Force has been infected. That's scary stats for you.

Very scary. Agreed. Especially true because South Africa has some legitimate external threats from at least one jealous and sometimes irrational neighbor, so a strong defense is essential to the country's security.

The same thing could happen in the USA very easily, and very well might still. South Africa has the unfortunate burden of pioneering the techniques needed to handle this situation.

Hopefully our new Health Minister is a little more up to date with methods on combating the epidemic. The previous one reccomended the following:

Her emphasis on treating South Africa's AIDS epidemic with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot, rather than with western antiretroviral medicines, was the subject of international criticism.

Previous Health Minister

She was not well-loved amongst the more educated populace:

According to a Sunday Times article titled "Manto: A Drunk and a Thief" published on August 19, 2007, the minister is a convicted thief who had stolen patient items at a hospital in Botswana, and had been deported from Botswana and declared a prohibited immigrant.

Your numbers could be even more shocking!

Black Death and Bubonic plague are synonyms for Yersinia pestis... so the total by your numbers is about 1 billion! It's hard to know for sure how many died though.

But Influenza and Spanish flue are like isotopes of the same disease... Influenza has been such a killer throughout time.


Now I'd like to add in those same diseases but by mortality rate:

The Black Death - 30-75%
Polio - 5-10%
Smallpox - Overall 30%,( though some varieties have as much as 75% and others as little as 10% mortality rates)
Cholera - 50%
Ebola - 83%
Malaria - COuld not actually find this readily availible for some reason...
Spanish Flu - 2.5%
Influenza - 0.1%
AIDS - COuld not find this either... but the research seemed to indicate that the actual deaths caused by AIDS itself were marginal, but secondary infections encouraged by the supressed immune system were more common. It should also be noted that AIDS takes on average up to 10 years to kill.
Marburg--25-90%
Hantavirus--+50%
MRSA-20%


Of course some of these mortality rates are averages and depend on whether the patient has good care or not-- but Ebola, Marburg, Hantavirus, possibly AIDS and good, old-fashioned plague come out the be the biggest killers, proportionally.