The Ebola virus has now killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa. Although the mortality
rate of the most recent outbreak isn't as high as in previous events, it's still the case that most
people who become infected with Ebola will not survive. (The mortality rate is about 60 percent
for the current outbreak, compared with 90 percent in the past, according to the National Institutes
of Health.)But despite this somber prognosis, health experts in the United States aren't particularly
worried about the threat of Ebola in this countryor in other developed countries.
"I see Ebola as a significant threat in the specific regions that it has been identified in, certainly
central and west Africa," said Cecilia Rokusek, a public health expert with Nova Southeastern
University's Institute for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness in Florida. "But in my opinion,
it's not an imminent threat for those in the United States." Indeed, other viruses pose a larger
threat to U.S. citizens, according to Rokusek. Although some of these viruses have far lower
mortality rates than that of Ebola, they are more prevalent in developed nations, and kill more
people annually than Ebola does. Here are five viruses that are just as dangerous (if not more
so) than Ebola:
Rabies
Over the past 100 years, rabies has declined significantly as a public health threat in the United
States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately two people
now die yearly in the United States from this virus, which is transmitted to people through saliva
when they are bitten by infected animals, such as dogs or bats. People who know they have been
bitten by an animal should receive the rabies vaccine, which prevents infection by the virus, according
to the CDC. But, especially in the case of bat bites, people may not always realize they have been
bitten. And rabies has one of the highest fatality rates of any virus; only three people in the United
States are known to have ever survived the disease without receiving the vaccine after exposure
to the virus. Still, the disease remains a greater threat in other areas of the world than in the United
States. Approximately 55,000 people die of rabies every year in Africa and Asia, according to the WHO.
HIV
Though the number of annual deaths related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has declined
in recent years, an estimated 1.6 million people worldwide died of HIV and autoimmune deficiency
syndrome (AIDS) related causes in 2012, according to the WHO. The virus attacks a person's immune
cells and weakens the immune system over time, making it very difficult for the infected individual to
fight off other diseases. About 15,500 people with an AIDS diagnosis died in 2010 in the United States,
according to the CDC. In total, an estimated 650,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States
since the disease was discovered in 1981. An estimated 36 million people have died worldwide
from the epidemic. Today, people with HIV do live longer than they used to, a trend that coincides
with the increased availability of antiretroviral therapy, as well as the decline in new infections since
the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1997. However, no cure for HIV exists.
Influenza
The flu may not sound very scary, but it kills far more people every year than Ebola does.
The exact number of people who die each year from seasonal flu virus is the subject of
much debate, but the CDC puts the average number of annual deaths in the United States
somewhere between 3,000 and 49,000. The large variation in yearly deaths arises because
many flu deaths are not reported as such, so the CDC relies on statistical methods to estimate
the number. Another reason for this wide range is that annual flu seasons vary in severity and
length, depending on what influenza viruses are most prominent. In years when influenza A
(H3N2) viruses are prominent, death rates are typically more than double what they are in seasons
when influenza A (H1N1) or influenza B viruses predominate, according to the CDC. A highly
contagious virus, influenza sickens far more people than it kills, with an estimated 3 million to
5 million people becoming seriously ill yearly from influenza viruses. Worldwide, the flu causes
an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Despite the relatively low mortality rate of the virus, public health professionals and doctors recommend
annual flu shots to keep the risk of complications from influenza at bay.
But flu vaccines, which offer immunity from influenza A and B viruses, do not protect against other
forms of influenza, which can arise when the virus undergoes genetic changes. New strains of
the flu result in higher than average mortality rates globally. The most recent influenza pandemic,
the "swine flu" or H1N1 pandemic, killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people globally during 2009
and 2010, according to the CDC.
Mosquito-borne viruses
Spread through the bite of an infected mosquito, viruses such as dengue, West Nile and yellow
fever kill more than 50,000 people worldwide every year, according to estimates by the WHO
and the CDC. (Malaria — which is also spread by mosquitos, but is caused by a parasite rather
than a virus kills more than 600,00 people yearly.) At least 40 percent of the world's population,
or about 2.5 billion people, are at risk of serious illness and death from mosquito-borne viral
diseases, according to the CDC.
Dengue fever, which is endemic to parts of South America, Mexico, Africa and Asia, claims
approximately 22,000 lives every year, according to the CDC. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a
deadly infection that causes high fevers and can lead to septic shock. These diseases occur in
regions neighboring the United States, making them a threat in this country. "Dengue is very active
in the Caribbean, and travelers to the Caribbean come back to the United States with dengue,"
said Dr. Robert Leggiadro, a New York physician and professor of biology at Villanova University
in Pennsylvania. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]
People infected with dengue while traveling abroad can spread the disease at home when
mosquitos bite them, and then bite other people, Leggiadro said. Even more deadly than dengue
is yellow fever, which mostly affects people in Latin America and Africa. The disease causes an
estimated 30,000 deaths worldwide, according to the WHO. The flu may not sound very scary,
but it kills far more people every year than Ebola does. The exact number of people who die each
year from seasonal flu virus is the subject of much debate, but the CDC puts the average number
of annual deaths in the United States somewhere between 3,000 and 49,000. The large variation
in yearly deaths arises because many flu deaths are not reported as such, so the CDC relies on
statistical methods to estimate the number. Another reason for this wide range is that annual flu
seasons vary in severity and length, depending on what influenza viruses are most prominent. In
years when influenza A (H3N2) viruses are prominent, death rates are typically more than double
what they are in seasons when influenza A (H1N1) or influenza B viruses predominate, according
to the CDC. A highly contagious virus, influenza sickens far more people than it kills, with an estimated
3 million to 5 million people becoming seriously ill yearly from influenza viruses. Worldwide, the flu
causes an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO). Despite the relatively low mortality rate of the virus, public health professionals and doctors
recommend annual flu shots to keep the risk of complications from influenza at bay.
But flu vaccines, which offer immunity from influenza A and B viruses, do not protect against other
forms of influenza, which can arise when the virus undergoes genetic changes. New strains of the
flu result in higher than average mortality rates globally. The most recent influenza pandemic, the
"swine flu" or H1N1 pandemic, killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people globally during 2009
and 2010, according to the CDC.
Source: Huff Post