The world is full of harmful creatures that are out there to kill you.

The word ‘Deadliest’ can be defined in more than one way. Generally, the viruses that kill most of the infected people are regarded as the most dangerous ones. Contrary to that, you get some viruses that have a low fatality rate but they have killed millions of people when considered on a larger scale. The viruses that cause fatal diseases burn themselves up as they kill their host in a pretty short span of time. They don’t get enough time to spread and attack more hosts. On the other hand, slow viruses can increase the number of their hosts exponentially.

As they infect more people, their death count is much more than their fast counterparts. For sake of understanding, Ebola has killed 30,000 people despite having a 90% fatality rate while Spanish Influenza, which has a fatality rate of 3%, has managed to wipe out more than 100 million people. Following is a list of the deadliest viruses that the world has to offer.

·         Influenza

It is commonly known as flu. None of us likes it but hardly anyone of us will rate it as a fatal disease. Despite the fact that an effective vaccine for influenza is available, it leads to nearly 500,000 deaths every year according to a survey of World Health Organization (WHO). This number can increase rapidly if new flu strain hits the scene just like the Spanish flu which emerged in 1918 and caused 50 million causalities worldwide. In light of these facts, flu should not be taken lightly under any circumstances.

·         Marburg Virus (MARV)

A lot of scientists consider it as the most dangerous virus in the world as the chances of surviving an attack from Marburg virus are extremely low. It causes a hemorrhagic fever in which different organs of the body start bleeding which is generally followed by a shock or an organ failure. Observations have shown that death follows shortly after these symptoms. The latest outbreaks of MARV affected Congo and Angola and the mortality rate was more than 80% on both occasions.

·         HIV

It has been declared as the deadliest virus of the modern era. According to an estimate, 36 million people have lost their lives since this disease was recognized for the first time in the 1980s. It attacks the immune system of the host which causes dual destruction. The immune system stops working and the affected body becomes much more vulnerable to different infections. Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America called it the biggest threat to mankind in the following words:

“The infectious disease that takes the biggest toll on mankind right now is HIV.”

·         Dengue

This virus travels from an infected person to the rest of the world through mosquitos. That is the reason why it is named as the ‘mosquito-borne infection’ many times. In spite of the fact that this disease was discovered 2,000 years ago in China, it spread to various parts of the world after it appeared in Thailand and Philippines in the 1950s. Dengue sickens 100 million people every year but thankfully it has a mortality rate of 2.5%. Having said that, it causes an extreme fever which can increase its death count.

·         Ebola

Just like MARV or Dengue, it causes a severe hemorrhagic fever which is mostly fatal as it has an extremely high mortality rate. It attacked West Africa in 2013-14 and affected at least 13,567 people out of which 4,922 were confirmed as dead. According to WHO, that was the largest and the most complex outbreak of the disease. The deadliness of its strains varies incredibly. For instance, Ebola Reston has no impact at all on the health of the host.

·         Rabies

This deadly virus is transferred to a human body through another animal either through a bite or a scratch. Scientists have developed an antidote for this virus but it is still a major issue in different parts of the world. Elke Muhlberger, an Associate Professor of Microbiology at Boston University, summed up the issue of Rabies by saying,

“It destroys the brain, it’s a really, really bad disease. We have a vaccine against rabies, and we have antibodies that work against rabies, so if someone gets bitten by a rabid animal we can treat this person. If you don’t get treatment, there’s a 100 percent possibility you will die.”