The most dangerous infections in the history of mankind from time to time make themselves felt. They really can destroy most of the world's population.
Until now, even the most modern medications can be helpless before the onset of these terrible diseases.
1. Influenza virus
The most common and harmless from the point of view of a person who is not related to medicine, a virus disease is considered to be influenza. Every year, millions of people who are infected with an infectious disease of the respiratory tract from each other by airborne droplets face it. Thanks to the advertising of drugs for colds it seems that it is enough to drink a couple of tablets - and all the symptoms will come to naught. Nevertheless, every year in the world, between 250,000 and 500,000 people die, most of whom are children and elderly people over 65 years of age. All of them underestimate the ability of the flu to provoke pneumonia, meningitis and even stroke.
2. AIDS
The real "plague of the XX century" is the syndrome of acquired human immunodeficiency. In just 100 years, she killed more than 22 million people, depriving them of their lives in the prime of life. AIDS is transmitted sexually and through blood or mother's milk, so the condom does not guarantee protection against infection. Becoming a carrier of the virus, a person actually falls into the rank of "untouchables" - he is deprived of work, nobody wants to communicate with him and live under the same roof. There are no real medicines that have been proven to work on AIDS. But there is an expert opinion that the real number of cases is at least five times higher than what is stated in the media.
3. Black Pox
The most ancient virus is smallpox, which first appeared on the planet 68 thousand years ago. The strain is constantly evolving, so smallpox outbreaks accompany humanity throughout its history. In the Middle Ages, it terrorized Europe and Russia, leaving no chance for its victims due to 90% of deaths. The survivors had a hard time - they were blind or deaf for life, and their skin was covered with scars from ulcers. In the XX century, smallpox changed again, but the new virus can not kill more than 40% of the number of cases. The last case of infection was registered in Somalia in 1977. Today, the virus is kept under guard in the laboratories of the United States and Russia.
4. Plague
The plague was long termed a "black death", until people found out that it was successfully treated with antibiotics. It was the most terrible epidemic in Medieval Europe, against which even black pox flourished. Only in the XIV century from the 75 million inhabitants of Europe from her killed 34 million people. Because of the infection, entire cities died out: people did not want to return home and become infected, removing corpses of relatives and neighbors.
It was not uncommon for doctors: they visited patients only in protective clothing, impregnated with wax and a mask with a beak, they examined the patients only with a wooden stick, so as not to touch them with their hands. After contact with sick clothes were burned. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was possible to find out why these measures were completely ineffective: the infection was carried not by air, but through rodents, fleas and horses.
5. Spaniard
Spanish or Spanish flu was the most massive epidemic of viral disease in the world. In 1919, the total number of infected reached 550 million people, which accounted for 30% of the world's population. Faced with the Spaniard, they died from acute inflammation and pulmonary edema, without the slightest chance of recovery. It is estimated that for a year the Spanish flu killed as many people as the plague managed to destroy in 7 years. Modern scientists suggest that the Spaniard was a close "relative" of the strain H1N1, with which scientists are struggling today.
6. Malaria
"Swamp fever" was transmitted and transmitted until now through mosquito bites, after which a person has fever, fever and chills, and then - increases the liver and spleen. The first officially recorded victim of the virus is Pharaoh Tutankhamun: in his body were found the causative agents of the "marsh fever" during the analyzes.
Malaria still dominates Africa, where it is difficult to identify and eradicate due to the fact that the local population does not like to go to doctors. Already, international medical organizations make terrible predictions: in the next 20 years, the death rate from malaria will grow at least twice. Today, 50% more people die from it than from ill-fated AIDS.
7. Ebola
Ebola is a virus that everyone around you knows about with TV and the Internet, but few people imagine what the disease looks like and what's going on, except for the people of Zaire and the Congo. It derives its name from the Ebola River basin, in which the first outbreak of the disease began, beginning with the usual increase in body temperature and ending with the defeat of the kidney and liver function with a fatal outcome. The disease is only partially taken under control, so 42% of the number of those who have encountered the virus still die from it.
8. Hepatitis
Hepatitis is called the whole complex of viruses of four types: they all attack the liver and begin to slowly destroy it, leading to death. The most dangerous are hepatitis B and C - over a year they die from more than a million people. Lead to infection can: breastfeeding the baby, tattooing, blood transfusions, unprotected sex. Hepatitis is an insidious enemy who in the first years after infection does not show itself in any way, but then quickly worsens the person's well-being.
9. The rabies virus
The rabies virus is transmitted to humans from animals, which are considered to be nice pets - cats, dogs, rodents, but only if they are left without a home. It penetrates into the blood when the infected animal bites. A sick person suffers from heat, hallucinations, feelings of fear and paralysis of the lower extremities and eye muscles: in combination, all these symptoms lead to death. Stop the development of infection can be timely vaccination.
10. Cholera
"Witness" of the plague and smallpox, to this day provoking deadly epidemics, manifests itself in the form of an outbreak of cholera vibrio. It is transmitted through feces, infected water and contaminated food. Without modern treatment for cholera, you can die with a probability of 85% of seizures, vomiting and dehydration.