Do some infectious diseases have a 100% mortality rate?

Infectious diseases occupy three of the ten places in the World Health Organization rankings. the 10 main causes of death and are responsible for millions of deaths each year around the world. However, despite these high numbers, diseases like COVID-19 and tuberculosis do not kill the majority of people they affect: COVID-19 kills around 1% of those infected, based on totals reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), and tuberculosis kills fewer than 15%according to WHO reports.

But are there any infectious diseases that cause a 100% mortality rate? And if so, what makes them so deadly?

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. According to Dr Amesh Adaljainfectious disease doctor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, almost all infections that once had a 100% mortality rate can now be prevented with vaccination or treated with modern medicine.

For example, HIV infections can now be treated with medication that prolong people’s lives and prevent the disease from progressing to AIDS. Smallpoxsome rare variants of which were almost 100% fatal, is now eradicated worldwide. Death from rabies, which is almost 100% fatal from the onset of symptoms, can be almost entirely avoided with immediate medical attention after the exposure. This care includes washing the wound, vaccination against rabies and, sometimes, antibody against the rabies virus.

“Things that are 100% fatal (if left untreated) have become manageable through human ingenuity,” Adalja told Live Science.

However, there are some deadly infectious diseases that we still have not brought under control. Some of these are always or almost always fatal, while others simply have very high mortality rates.

For example, amoebic meningitis – better known as infection by a “brain-eating” amoeba – is a rare infection that is almost always fatal. Amoebic meningitis spreads to the brain through the nose, usually after a person is immersed in contaminated water. In rare cases, these infections have was successfully treated but scientists are looking for better solutions.

And there are other rare diseases that still remain mysterious, such as prion diseases. These diseases are caused by misfolded proteins in the brain – called prions – which cause other proteins to misfold in a chain reaction that eventually causes brain damage and death.

A microscope image of prions

A detailed look at a prion disease called spongiform encephalopathy. Prion diseases are almost always fatal. (Image credit: UCSF via Getty Images)

Most cases of prion diseases would not be considered infectious; they come from genetic mutations that are inherited or arise spontaneously. However, people can rarely develop them after eating or being exposed to meat contaminated with prions. during medical procedures. Examples include variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which people can get after eating beef from cows with “mad cow disease,” and Kuruwhich affected the Fore people in Papua New Guinea.

“Prions have been studied for decades, but I think they’re still trying to figure out what the ultimate trigger is,” said Rodney E. Rohdeinfectious disease specialist at Texas State University. Although they are extremely rare, prion diseases all have one thing in common: once contracted, there is no cure and death can often occur within a few weeks of symptoms appearing.

What makes such diseases so deadly? One factor is the progressive history of the disease. If an illness has human hosts infected for tens of thousands of yearsour body has the opportunity to try to defend itself, which increases our chances of survival. However, if humans are an accidental or dead end host – as is the case with diseases like rabies — the disease is not designed to keep us alive, because we are not its main hosts. In these cases, we usually have not developed an appropriate immune response to fight it without the help of medical treatment.

Rabies, for example, elicits an immune response in humans, but that response is not fast enough to defeat the virus before it infects the brain and kills the host. “Some pathogens have a much more evil and notorious nature,” Rohde told Live Science. “They flood the immune system and the body can’t adapt quickly enough.”

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Do some infectious diseases have a 100% mortality rate?

Umito

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Do some infectious diseases have a 100% mortality rate?

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