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Asked by anon-377652 to Michael S, Martin M, Kirsty R, Erin P, Bruno Silvester L, Alexander dB on 15 Feb 2024. This question was also asked by ClassHimid.
Question: what is the most deadliest virus
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Kirsty Ross answered on 15 Feb 2024:
The deadliest virus in the modern world is rabies. It has a 100% fatality rate once symptoms emerge. However, if you are vaccinated immediately after exposure, you can survive the disease. Rabies doesn’t exist in the UK due to quarantine measures for any domestic or farm animals entering the country.
Another extremely dangerous virus was smallpox but that was irradicated in the 1970s thanks to vaccinations. Your grand or great-grandparents may have a square scar on their arm from their vaccination, which was delivered through unusual forked needles.
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Erin Pallott answered on 15 Feb 2024:
As Kirsty said, rabies has the highest fatality rate once symptoms start showing. People bitten by rabid animals can seek treatment before symptoms.
Influenza is also a very deadly virus, from sheer number of deaths. We have had several pandemics throughout history caused by different types of flu virus.
Smallpox was also very fatal, and was very prominent in history. Many mummies and in tact bodies discovered show signs of smallpox. Once vaccinations were developed, we were able to eradicate it, and it is STILL the only eradicated infectious disease in humans.
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Bruno Silvester Lopes answered on 16 Feb 2024:
Rabies not the only one that is deadly. Viruses like Ebola, Marburg are also dangerous. I study infectious diseases
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Martin McCoustra answered on 19 Feb 2024:
I’d agree with Kirsty and the others… One of the deadliest virus is the influenza virus. A variant of this virus is estimated to have infected almost 500 million people in 1918 – 1919 after the end of the first world war. It kiiled over 20 million. You can read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
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Alexander De Bruin answered on 20 Feb 2024:
it depends on what you mean by deadly. Spanish flu and Covid19 both killed millions of people during acute illness (dying from the immediate symptoms). Rabies and Ebola both kill over 90% of people that contract the viruses. Smallpox has been eradicated, but was a serious threat especially in developing countries without modern healthcare. The final one to consider is HIV, which has led to around 32 million deaths from AIDS (the disease caused by HIV), though the treatment for HIV has come a huge way even in the last 5 years and is often no longer fatal.
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Michael Schubert answered on 29 Feb 2024:
You have lots of good answers here! Rabies is probably one of the most likely to be deadly once you catch it, but there are other viruses that are also very dangerous, like the Ebola and Marburg viruses Bruno mentioned. Viruses are extremely good at figuring out how to get around our defenses!
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