Top 10 Deadliest Diseases of All-Times

Diseases have claimed millions of lives from all over the world since the beginning of History. There were more

people who died of diseases than people who died during the many wars that happened anywhere else in the

world.

1. Smallpox

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Smallpox is the deadliest disease in the world. In the 20th century alone there were approximately 500,000,000

people who died of this disease. This infectious disease is caused by either Variola major or Variola minor.

Smallpox is believed to have emerged in human populations 12,000 years ago. The disease killed an estimated

400,000 Europeans each year during the 18th century and was responsible for a third of all blindness. Of all

those infected, 20–60%—and over 80% of infected children—died from the disease. To this day, smallpox is the

only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated.

2. Malaria

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Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world killing about 80,000,000–250,000,000 people worldwide from

the 20th century to present alone. This infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites is widespread in tropical

and subtropical regions. Each year, there are approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria, killing between one

and three million people mostly from Africa.

3. Measles

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More or less 200,000,000 people have died worldwide from the killer disease Measles in the last 150 years. It is

an infection of the respiratory system caused by paramyxovirus. Fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes are its most

common symptoms. Measles is spread through respiration and is highly contagious—90% of people without

immunity sharing a house with an infected person will catch it.

4. Bubonic Plaque

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Approximately 150,000,000 people were killed worldwide by Bubonic Plague from 1300s to 1950s. This disease is

caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This dreaded disease kills about half of infected patients in 3–7 days

without treatment, and is believed by many to be the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 1340s and

killing millions.

5. Spanish Influenza

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The deadly Spanish Flu had claimed 50,000,000–100,000,000 lives worldwide from 1918 to1919 only. This

disease spread nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus

strain of subtype H1N1. The pandemic that occurred from 1918 to 1920 killed 50 to 100 million people were killed

worldwide and an estimated 500 million people or1/3 of the world’s population (approximately 1.6 billion at the

time), became infected.

6. Tuberculosis

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Tuberculosis or TB had claimed 40,000,000–100,000,000 lives worldwide from the 20th century to

present. This is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria and usually attacks the

lungs but can also affect the central nervous system and others.

7. Cholera

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From 1816 to present, there were approximately 40 million to 50 million people died of Cholera. This disease is

sometimes known as Asiatic or Epidemic Cholera, an infectious gastroenteritis. Transmission to humans occurs

through eating food or drinking water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae from other cholera patients.

8. AIDS

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One infectious disease that has caught the attention of the world with so much controversy is AIDS with an

estimated 25,250,000 people died worldwide from 1981 to 2007 only. It is a disease of the human

immune system caused by the so-called human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. AIDS is now a pandemic with

33.2 million people contaminated with the disease worldwide.

9. Asian Flu / Influenza A Virus

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Asian flu, a much dreaded disease, has killed 4,000,000 people worldwide in 1957 alone. It is also suspected of

causing a human pandemic in 1889. This disease originated in China in 1956 until 1958.

10. Hong Kong Flu

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Another killer disease that originated in Asia is Hong Kong Flu which killed about 1,000,000 people worldwide in

01968-01-011968.  It was a category 2 flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one

million people worldwide. It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus.

See also

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