What is the deadliest disease of all times?

Asked by: Sheldon Heaney  |  Last update: January 29, 2024
Score: 4.8/5 (47 votes)

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.

What disease killed the fastest?

  • The world's fastest killer is ischaemic heart disease, responsible for 16% of the world's total deaths.
  • Cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke are also extremely fatal within minutes of their onset.

What diseases have no cure?

Some of the common medical conditions of people requiring care at the end of life include:
  • cancer.
  • 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.
  • muscular dystrophy.

What was the last disease that was cured?

Smallpox: 200 years between vaccine and the disease eradication. The last recorded case of smallpox occurred in 1977 in Somalia. The disease was officially declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980.

What diseases will be cured in our lifetime?

5 Diseases That May Be Cured Within Our Lifetime
  • HIV/AIDS. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, was only discovered mere decades ago. ...
  • Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's affects nearly 5.7 million Americans who struggle with varying stages of dementia. ...
  • Cancer. ...
  • Cystic Fibrosis. ...
  • Heart Disease.

The Top 5 Deadliest Diseases Ever Known

23 related questions found

What disease killed 50 billion people?

Infectious diseases with high prevalence

Throughout history, malaria may have killed 50–60 billion people, or about half of all humans that have ever lived.

What is the most feared disease in the US?

The top five most-feared diseases were:
  • Cancer.
  • Alzheimer's disease.
  • Heart disease.
  • Stroke.
  • Diabetes.

What are the top 3 deadliest diseases?

Read on to see the top 10 diseases that cause the most deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
  1. Ischemic heart disease, or coronary artery disease. ...
  2. Stroke. ...
  3. Lower respiratory tract infections. ...
  4. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. ...
  5. Tracheal, bronchial and lung cancer. ...
  6. Diabetes.

What disease most people fear?

Cancer? Stroke? No, the answer to which disease America fears most is Alzheimer's, or dementia, according to a Marist Institute for Public Opinion poll. Right now, more than five million Americans are living with the memory-robbing illness, and by 2050, that number could more than triple to 16 million.

Which disease led to death?

The top global causes of death, in order of total number of lives lost, are associated with three broad topics: cardiovascular (ischaemic heart disease, stroke), respiratory (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory infections) and neonatal conditions – which include birth asphyxia and birth trauma, ...

What disease is the 1 killer in the US?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women.

What is the 1st largest killer disease in the world?

Cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death globally. In the map we see death rates from cardiovascular diseases across the world.

What is the world's top infectious killer?

Every year, 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB). Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world's top infectious killer.

What is a natural cause of death?

Death is usually considered “natural” if it wasn't caused by an external factor. Simply put, a “natural” death is one that occurs due to an internal factor that causes the body to shut down, such as cancer, heart disease or diabetes. It means there was no external reason for the death, such as a traumatic injury.

What is the number 1 killer of children?

Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year.

What is the most common death date?

Several studies show you have a greater chance of dying on Christmas, the day after Christmas or New Year's Day than any other single day of the year. This is true for people who die of natural causes, which account for 93% of all deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

What diseases are fatal to humans?

In 2018, the five deadliest illnesses in the U.S. were heart disease, cancer, lung disease, cerebrovascular disease, and Alzheimer's disease. The other leading causes of death due to disease were diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease.

What is the White death disease?

Tuberculosis (TB) was called “phthisis” in ancient Greece, “tabes” in ancient Rome, and “schachepheth” in ancient Hebrew. In the 1700s, TB was called “the white plague” due to the paleness of the patients.

What disease killed people in the 1800s?

It was a time when dangerous diseases stalked the land, including smallpox, cholera, typhus, dysentery, yellow fever, scarlet fever, syphilis, measles, malaria, diphtheria, consumption (tuberculosis), influenza, and many more.

What old diseases are coming back?

Scarlet fever, tuberculosis, mumps, measles: You may think these are deadly diseases of the past, wiped out with vaccines and antibiotics. The truth is that these diseases are still infecting people worldwide, and some have made resurgences in the U.S. Stay healthy and safe with the precautions outlined here.

What is the least known disease?

RPI Deficiency

This is considered to be the rarest disease in the world. Ribose-5-Phosphate Isomerase (RPI), is a crucial enzyme in a metabolic process in the human body. This condition can cause muscle stiffness, seizures, and reduction of white matter in the brain.

Which disease is who hoping to eradicate?

Finally, a more familiar disease – Rabies – is also targeted for eradication. The World Health Organization is working to prevent all human deaths from Rabies by 2030 while vaccinating all wild and domestic carnivores (foxes, dogs, etc.)

Why can t COVID be eradicated?

There are a number of factors that made smallpox eradicable and that make SARS-CoV-2 impossible to eradicate. First, smallpox only infected humans, whereas SARS-CoV-2 has many animal reservoirs. Even if we could stop transmission in humans, it could always spill over again.

What diseases disappeared due to vaccination?

Smallpox is the only human infection to have been eradicated, although eradication of guineaworm infection is close.