The "worst" disease depends on the metric (death toll, societal impact), but the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) (mid-1300s, killing 30-60% of Europe's population) and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (killing 50+ million globally) are top contenders for deadliest by sheer numbers, while diseases like Smallpox and HIV/AIDS have caused massive long-term mortality and devastation, fundamentally altering societies.
Top 10 Scariest Diseases
Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza are some of the most brutal killers in human history. And outbreaks of these diseases across international borders, are properly defined as pandemic, especially smallpox, which throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000 year existence.
Number of deaths for leading causes of death. Heart disease: 680,981. Cancer: 613,352. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 222,698. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,639.
Huntington disease is an inherited, neurodegenerative disorder. If a parent has the condition, each child will have a 50% chance of developing the disease.
The leading cause is cardiovascular disease at 31.59% of all deaths.
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.
Medical conditions that still remain incurable
The plague that killed up to 75% of the population in some areas was the Black Death, a devastating pandemic (1346–1353) caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which wiped out huge portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with some cities losing as many as three-quarters of their inhabitants in mere days.
The longest documented and verified human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), a woman who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days. As women live longer than men on average, women predominate in combined records.
Answer and Explanation: We do not have the slightest idea as to who was the first person to die in human history as that particular fact is impossible to know for sure. Many religions and mythologies have their own answers to this question.
Both septicemic plague (blood infection) and pneumonic plague (lung infection) had a nearly 100% death rate if left untreated, with pneumonic plague being the most contagious form, spreading through airborne droplets and being rapidly fatal. Untreated bubonic plague (swollen lymph nodes) could also develop into these deadly forms, leading to high mortality.
The Top 10 Scariest Medical Diagnoses Throughout History
After Huntington's disease starts, a person's ability to function gradually gets worse over time. How quickly the disease gets worse and how long it takes varies. The time from the first symptoms to death is often about 10 to 30 years.
What are rare diseases?
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.
History's Most Terrifying Diseases Explained
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.
7 Diseases That Can Be Asymptomatic
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.
Often referred to as the “silent killer” because it may show no symptoms, high blood pressure puts you at an increased risk for heart disease, heart failure, and stroke, among other things.
In the United States in 2021, the death rate was highest among those aged 85 and over, with about 17,190.5 men and 14,914.5 women per 100,000 of the population passing away.
DIL, or “Dangerously Ill List”, is a medically-verified status where the patient's death is deemed imminent.
Global Births Per Day
Every day, around 370,000 babies are born worldwide. That's based on the much larger number of average worldwide births per year, reported by Our World in Data to be around 135 million. If you divide 135 million by 365, you get about 370,000.