It doesn't matter how tough you are, how well you eat, how often you exercise, or how often you tell people that you're vegan, a virus doesn't discriminate. It sees everyone as a viable host, and that's what makes an outbreak so terrifying.
For example, one of the most devastating outbreaks in recent history — and by recent, we just mean within the last few hundred years — was the Spanish flu. It hit on the eve of World War I, was incubated in the unsanitary conditions of the front lines, and was spread all over the world by soldiers returning home in what should have been a happy occasion. According to the BBC , somewhere between 50 and million people died during the Spanish flu outbreak, and that's unfathomable — especially considering the entirety of World War I had claimed around 20 million lives.
In other words, viruses are no joke, and while no one is coming down with that particular strain of flu any more, there are plenty of ultra-deadly viruses still out there. Seriously, the world is crawling with terrifying diseases, some of which are relatively new and some of which have been around for a while. Whether they're spread by bats, dogs, or people, these are the deadliest viruses still in existence. They wanted to know where they were going when they left their caves, because those bats had been linked to several cases of Marburg.
It's a disease that the CDC says is caused by a virus that's first spread from bat to human, likely through "unprotected contact with infected bat feces or aerosols," then between people, through direct contact with other infected bodily fluids. It was first identified in , when African green monkeys who were infected with the virus were sent to laboratories in Belgrade, Germany, and Yugoslavia.
Within a week, several lab workers were dead, and since then, hundreds of people have died during dozens of outbreaks — mostly located near bat caves.
It's an awful way to die, and most people who get it do, in fact, die. The symptoms include things like fever, chills, and a rash, which the CDC says then turns into nausea, chest pain, and vomiting. It gets progressively worse, turning into delirium, shock, and finally ending in massive hemorrhaging and multi-organ dysfunction. Bottom line? Just stay out of bat caves. Looking at influenza is extremely complicated, but let's talk about the deadliest one, and according to the CDC , that's the influenza A virus.
There are actually four different categories: A, B, C, and D. A is the only one that's caused massive pandemics, and it's also the one that can undergo a fast, drastic change called an " antigenic shift. Influenza's chameleon-like ability to shift and change makes it incredibly dangerous.
Take the outbreak of H1N1 or swine flu. The CDC estimates that during the first year of the outbreak, around half a million people died from it. And while typically, the most susceptible demographics include the very young, the very old, and the immune-compromised, this particular flu targeted people younger than And it's still out there.
Between and , around 75, people died from it. That's an entirely different thing from seasonal flu , which goes around every year, usually between December and February. That, we're prepared for, because most people have been exposed to the virus before or have had some kind of immunization that helps protect us. It's when the virus changes that terrible things happen because we have no previous immunity or defenses.
Everyone's immune system is starting from scratch, and we all know how long project planning takes. According to the World Health Organization , Ebola is pretty rare. When the virus does make the jump to human populations — usually coming from close contact with animals like gorillas, chimpanzees, and monkeys, but it can also come from bats, antelope, and porcupines — it can have a fatality rate of anywhere from 25 to 90 percent, depending on the outbreak.
The virus that causes Ebola was first discovered in — when it wiped out a lot of people — and treatment is still supportive. Sadly, one of the groups at the highest risk for being infected are healthcare workers who are treating patients, as the virus can spread through blood or other bodily fluids. Ultimately, though, the CDC says researchers still aren't sure where the virus originates, but they do know that there's at least six different versions of it that cause illness in various animals.
Four of those can infect and kill people. Symptoms can take as long as 21 days to appear but a person isn't contagious until they're symptomatic and include things like fatigue, muscle pain, headache, fever, and sore throat. At the moment, virus experts warn that the data on this variant is still very limited.
For now, we can only look to anecdotal data on how this variant is affecting the people it's infecting. During a Dec. There are about 47 million U. But according to Mzukwa, doctors in South Africa have mostly observed cases that are less severe among those infected with the Omicron variant so far. Mzukwa added, "Obviously, we're still gathering information as to the spread of this Omicron in the country, but it is not what it is touted to be out there.
There is nothing much that we see beyond what we have seen with the Delta variant. Virus experts like Fauci warn that it is far too soon to put too much stock into the idea that infections from this new variant are going to cause only mild illness.
Fauci also added the important context that what doctors are seeing in South Africa right now are mostly younger patients, and not older ones. But … most of those are among younger individuals," he said during the briefing.
The reason many virus experts believe that the Omicron variant might end up causing more severe disease is because of its high levels of mutations.
Those severely affected by the disease report sustained high fevers and irritability of the central nervous system. Inflammation of the testicles orchitis has been reported by some sufferers of the disease, around 15 days in. When people die from the disease, death usually occurs between eight and nine days after onset. This often is a result of severe blood loss and shock. The WHO says there is not currently a proven treatment for the virus, but potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies, are being evaluated.
Treatment of the specific symptoms and rehydration makes survival more likely. The disease was first discovered after two large outbreaks occurred in Frankfurt and Marburg in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in The outbreak was associated with lab work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda. Since then, most outbreaks have been reported in Africa. The last time cases were reported was in , when two independent cases were reported in travelers who visited a cave inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies in Uganda.
The last large outbreak was in Angola in , where the virus killed more than people. In the latest wave, it had reported 2, confirmed cases by Monday and no deaths. Still, it imposed a very harsh lockdown. Residents were not allowed to leave their compounds. Some buildings were locked up. More than 45, people were moved to quarantine facilities. Deliveries largely disappeared. A few community volunteers made a young man who ventured out to buy food read a self-criticism letter in front of a video camera.
They hiked, biked and swam in wintry days and nights. Two of them were detained by police, according to local police and media reports. Then there were the hospitals that denied patients access to medical care and deprived their loved ones of the chance to say goodbye.
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