While many infections are curable, several significant ones lack a definitive cure, including HIV/AIDS, Herpes, Hepatitis B, and Lyme Disease, though treatments manage symptoms and progression; rare but devastating conditions like SSPE (from measles) and infections from brain-eating amoebae (Naegleria fowleri) also fall into this category, often being fatal.
Some of the common medical conditions of people requiring care at the end of life include:
Take, for example, these six diseases that may be cured within our lifetime.
So far, only two diseases have been successfully eradicated—one specifically affecting humans (smallpox) and one affecting cattle (rinderpest).
Incurable STDs
Abstract. The six killer diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, measles, acute lower respiratory infections, diphtheria, and whooping cough, represent the most significant contributors to the overall global burden of disease.
Medical professionals call high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, the silent killer because it can go undetected for a long period of time and leads to death. Most people who have high blood pressure do not have any symptoms; testing is the only way to determine if someone has it.
The number one killer in the world is cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease and stroke, responsible for about one-third of all global deaths, claiming nearly 18-20 million lives annually, and remains the leading cause across all regions, according to WHO and World Heart Federation. While COVID-19 caused significant deaths in recent years, CVD has consistently held the top spot for decades, with increases seen globally, especially in younger populations.
Successfully eradicated diseases
The world has successfully eradicated two diseases: Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980. Rinderpest was declared eradicated in 2011.
So far, the WHO has only two (2) eradicated diseases on their list. All thanks to the success of vaccines, smallpox caused by the variola virus (VARV) and rinderpest from the rinderpest virus (RPV) are now entirely wiped out of existence.
Five big global health wins in 2025 that will save millions of...
Reemerging diseases are those that come back after they have been on a major decline. This may happen because of problems in public health actions for diseases that were once under control. They can also happen when new strains of known diseases occur. People's behavior can cause diseases to reemerge.
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a disease entity characterized by sudden onset fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and rash which can quickly progress to hypotension, multiorgan system failure, and even death.
Includes Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and all its variants, fatal insomnia, kuru, Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy and others. No cases of survival, invariably fatal.
What are the seven child killer diseases? The seven child killer diseases are pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, and HIV/AIDS. These diseases are major health issues worldwide. They cause a lot of child deaths globally.
What are rare diseases?
Vaccination has made an enormous contribution to global health. Two major infections, smallpox and rinderpest, have been eradicated.
The only disease we've completely eliminated is smallpox. This one's close, but it still exists in several countries outside the U.S. That's partly because it's not always easy to tell that someone has it. In places where not everyone gets the vaccine, it can spread before doctors have a chance to contain it.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is often called the "silent killer" for good reason.
Taken together, heart diseases and cancers are the cause of every second death. In red are infectious diseases, which are responsible for around 1-in-7 deaths. These include pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. A smaller share – around 4% – was from neonatal and maternal deaths.
Record numbers of men and women globally are now estimated to have reduced kidney function, a new study shows. Figures rose from 378 million people with the disease in 1990 to 788 million in 2023 as the world population grew and aged, making it for the first time a top 10 cause of death worldwide.
There's no single "hardest" chronic illness, as impact varies, but conditions like ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), which causes progressive paralysis; severe neurological pain conditions like Trigeminal Neuralgia, leading to extreme facial shock-like pain; and debilitating respiratory diseases like COPD, making breathing difficult, are often cited due to their profound effect on daily function, independence, and quality of life. Other tough chronic illnesses include severe autoimmune disorders, advanced heart/kidney disease, and dementia, impacting mental and physical capacity significantly.
7 Diseases That Can Be Asymptomatic
A few people with high blood pressure may have: