Science Fact Finder | Health and Medicine - Which Disease Is The Deadliest?

Which disease is the deadliest?

The most deadly infectious disease in history was the pneumonic form of the plague, the so-called Black Death of 1347 to 1351. The pneumonic plague, which was a bacterial lung infection, had a mortality (death) rate of 100 percent.

Today, the disease with the highest mortality rate in humans (almost 100 percent) is rabies. A person who contracts rabies from being bitten by a rabid animal develops an inability to swallow water. With immediate attention, the rabies virus, introduced by a bite, can be prevented from invading the human nervous system. The survival rate in this circumstance is 95 percent.

The high-mortality disease receiving the most attention today is AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). First reported in 1981, AIDS is caused when a person is infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). HIV works by seriously weakening the victim's immune system, leaving the...

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