The most dangerous infectious disease. Interesting things on the web
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It would be a good idea for every person to learn about the serious diseases that are caused by the group viruses. Epidemics of these viruses can occur at any time anywhere in the world, no one is immune from this disease. The most dangerous viruses in the world are often unpredictable and can manifest themselves in quite a variety of ways.
Ebola
The virus, from the filovirus family, which has become quite sensational recently throughout the world. Ebola causes a severe form of hemorrhagic fever in humans. Its danger lies in the fact that in case of severe clinical picture in patients, there is no specific therapy and vaccines against virus. Amazes virus Ebola affects almost all human organs and systems. The incubation period of this virus ranges from 3 to 22 days. The disease begins with a sharp increase in body temperature, accompanied by pain in the muscles, head, throat, and bones. The function of the liver, kidneys, respiratory and cardiovascular systems is impaired. Without the necessary replacement therapy, multiple organ failure develops and the patient dies. As noted above, there is no specific therapy, so the disease is treated by “prosthetics” of the lost functions of organs and systems. Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, massive infusion therapy are widely used, hemodialysis may be necessary, and connecting the patient to an artificial breathing.
An interesting fact is that the development vaccines and specialty drugs, was discontinued in 2012, due to the fact that large pharma. companies considered research costs not profitable due to the lack of a sales market.
Marburg virus
This disease is considered the most deadly in the world; in itself it is very similar to virus Ebola, however, in an even worse form. The virus causes a similar clinical picture to Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Vascular damage is observed along with hemorrhagic syndrome, which ends in multiple organ failure and death. The mortality rate of this virus after the latest outbreak in Angola was 80% of the number of cases.
AIDS virus
HIV, and caused by it AIDS, a widely discussed and solved problem. However, big breakthroughs in treatment This type of virus was never implemented. There is currently a pandemic of this virus in the world. It has spread to all continents and countries of the globe, and is rightfully included in the group of “most dangerous viruses.” On my own virus belongs to the group of retroviruses. Its danger lies in the fact that it knocks out a very important link in the human body immune systems, due to which a person “loses” immunity, and dies from a secondary infection. For now, vaccines or no cure has been invented, however developed retroviral support regimens therapy which allows you to save life people with HIV positive status throughout decades.
Influenza virus
Despite the fact that with flu We meet almost every year, and many have had this disease without dangerous consequences; it is a deadly disease. Over the past 200 years, various strains of the virus flu have claimed far more lives than HIV and Ebola combined. What is the danger of the virus? flu? First of all, unpredictability. Flu mutates almost faster than all viruses known to mankind, each time, it is unknown what severity it will be, and how to change the vaccine. It is enough to recall the bird flu and Californian flu epidemics to understand that this disease can kill thousands of people. Despite the fact that a huge number of people in the world get sick and recover every year, it is unknown how the virus will mutate next year and how dangerous it will be. It is for this reason that influenza virus strains are worth noting as the most dangerous representatives of viruses.
Rabies
There is no cure, but there is a vaccine. The rabies virus is talked about less and less these days. Proper medical and veterinary control helped defeat this disease. Despite this, cases of rabies infection still occur in the world. The danger of this virus is that if a person gets sick, he will die. The rabies virus affects the nervous system, and it will not be possible to survive it.
Hepatitis
The hepatitis virus has many variants. The most dangerous and common are hepatitis C and hepatitis B. Currently, against data diseases there are successful methods treatment and there is a specific vaccination. In addition, a person can recover on his own. However, if cases of the disease are severe and there is no treatment, the person will inevitably develop cirrhosis of the liver and death. The problem of treating viral hepatitis is the cost of drugs. Courses of antiviral therapy cost patients enormous sums of money. The treatment itself also has a very detrimental effect on the human body due to the pronounced side effects of the drugs.
Conclusion
The viruses described above are classified as the most dangerous in the world. Their incidence and the epidemic situation around the world suggests that each of us may be in danger. However, the World Health Organization is conducting active research and introducing measures to prevent and combat this group of viruses. He remains hopeful that over time, humanity around the world will come to a certain point of self-awareness and, through joint efforts, will overcome dangerous viruses. A Ergashak balms
will help with this.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a highly contagious viral disease, the causative agents of which are susceptible to humans, primates and some artiodactyls, in particular pigs and goats.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever in humans was first identified in 1976 in the Congo (formerly Zaire) and provinces of Sudan. The causative agent of the disease was isolated by medical personnel from the Ebola River areas, hence the name.
In the short period of time after the virus was identified, more than 500 people were affected by the disease, 2/3 of whom died within 3 days of the onset of symptoms. Soon the entire territory of the African continent was familiar with the deadly disease.
Also in 1976, the first case was identified in the UK - it turned out to be a researcher who became infected with the virus as a result of laboratory research.
Ebola fever has been occasionally reported in people from the United States, the Philippines, and even Russia. In the course of identifying the sources of infection, it was revealed that all the sick people had contact with residents of Africa or carried out medical experiments.
Thanks to the actions of the WHO regional bodies, the establishment of strict quarantine measures at border crossings and customs points during the epidemic, all this time the spread of the Ebola virus was contained, however, for almost 40 years, the African continent is still considered epidemiologically unfavorable due to spontaneous outbreaks of this disease in humans. Thus, during this period, about 2,000 people died due to infection with the virus in the region, while almost the same number suffered from the disease and recovered.
Despite the efforts of doctors, the leadership of European countries and the quarantine measures taken, since the beginning of 2014, an unprecedented epidemic of the disease has been observed in the countries of Central and West Africa. As of August of this year, 2.5 thousand citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were diagnosed with Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and more than 1.5 thousand Africans are considered dead from this disease.
On August 8 of this year, WHO representatives dubbed Ebola a “global threat,” and on August 12, the first death from this disease in Europe in the last 2 decades was recorded - a resident of Spain who had recently visited Liberia died.
Despite large-scale and long-term research, it is not known for certain how exactly the Ebola virus enters the body. Scientists believe that the gateway to infection is microtrauma in the mucous membranes of the body, where the pathogen enters with the physiological fluids of infected humans and animals.
There are usually no visible transformations observed at the site of virus introduction.
The latent (incubation) period of the disease ranges from 2 days to 3 weeks and depends on the type of virus and the general health of the infected person.
Like any hemorrhagic fever, the disease begins with general intoxication of the body and is manifested by attacks of severe headaches, pain in the abdomen and muscles, an increase in body temperature to 39-41 degrees, diarrhea, vomiting, lesions of the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx and eyes. Later, these symptoms are accompanied by a dry, hacking cough; half of the patients have a rash, similar in appearance to the manifestations of chickenpox.
In a person sick with the Ebola virus, the dehydration (dehydration), which leads to impaired liver and kidney function, causing internal bleeding. This course of the disease is observed in approximately 50-60% of patients, and if the victim does not recover within 2 weeks, the fever usually ends in death. In this case, death occurs due to massive blood loss.
Blood tests of patients indicate a clotting disorder (thrombocytopenia), an increase in the number of leukocytes due to an increase in inflammatory processes (leukocytosis) and a decrease in the amount of hemoglobin (anemia). These indicators, coupled with general symptoms, indicate damage to the human hematopoietic system.
Only young patients who do not have any chronic diseases have a favorable prognosis. It is a scientifically proven fact that the majority of residents of the African continent have already acquired immunity to the disease, since throughout their lives they have had a very large number of chances of becoming infected and safely surviving Ebola fever asymptomatically due to infection with special strains of the virus. This explains the selectivity of patient death.
The disease is sometimes mistaken for malaria and other tropical diseases due to similar symptoms.
It is possible to determine whether a particular patient has this disease after conducting specialized laboratory tests, clinical symptoms and analysis of the prerequisites for the disease (contacts with patients, stay in disadvantaged regions).
Despite modern scientific developments and research, a vaccine against Ebola does not yet exist, and treatment of patients is symptomatic. Patients require careful care and relief of dehydration - by administering large amounts of fluid using intravenous and jet injections, as well as orally.
There is widespread agreement among the medical community that any hemorrhagic fever can be eradicated, including Ebola, however, since the vast majority of patients are residents of third world countries, the development of vaccines and drugs against regional deadly diseases will not bring significant benefits to pharmaceutical companies arrived.
Today, the growth of the disease is progressing, claiming human lives every day.
Incredible facts
Modern medicine has done a lot to eradicate and cure diseases, but unfortunately, there are still many horrific diseases for which there is no cure.
1. Ebola hemorrhagic fever
Ebola is a virus of the filovirus family that causes severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. Outbreaks of this disease have been observed in primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees and in humans. The disease is characterized by high fever, rash, and excessive bleeding. In humans, the fatality rate is 50 to 90 percent.
The name of the virus comes from the Ebola River in the northern Congo Basin of central Africa, where it first appeared in 1976. That year, outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan led to hundreds of deaths. Ebola virus closely related to Marburg virus, which was discovered in 1967, and both of these viruses are the only members of the filoviruses that cause epidemics in humans.
The hemorrhagic virus spreads through bodily fluids and, just as patients often vomit blood, caregivers often contract the disease.
2. Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis or spinal paralysis is an acute viral infectious disease of the nervous system that begins with general symptoms such as high fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, pain and muscle spasms, sometimes followed by more severe and permanent muscle paralysis one or more limbs, throat or chest. More than half of all polio cases occur in children under 5 years of age. The paralysis that is so often associated with the disease actually affects less than one percent of people infected with the polio virus.
Only 5 to 10 percent of infected people show the above-mentioned common symptoms, and more than 90 percent of people show no signs of illness. For those who have become infected poliovirus, there is no treatment. Since the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children have suffered from this disease every year. Since the 1960s, thanks to the widespread distribution of the polio vaccine, polio has been eliminated in most countries of the world and is now endemic only in a few countries in Africa and South Asia. Every year, about 1,000-2,000 children are left paralyzed by polio.
3. Lupus erythematosus
Lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease that leads to chronic inflammation in different parts of the body. There are three main forms of lupus: discoid lupus erythematosus, systemic lupus erythematosus and drug-induced lupus.
Discoid lupus affects only the skin and usually does not involve internal organs. It is characterized by a rash or various patches of redness covered in grayish-brown scales that may appear on the face, neck, and scalp. In about 10 percent of cases in people with discoid lupus, the disease will develop into the more severe systemic form of lupus.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common form of this disease. She can affect almost any organ or body structure, especially the skin, kidneys, joints, heart, gastrointestinal tract, brain and serous membranes.
And while systemic lupus can affect any area of the body, most people experience symptoms in only a few organs. The skin rash may resemble that found in discoid lupus. It is also known that rarely do two people have the same symptoms. This disease is very varied in nature and is marked by periods when the disease becomes active and periods when symptoms are not so obvious.
4. Flu
Influenza is an acute viral infection of the upper and lower respiratory tract, which is characterized by high fever, chills, a general feeling of weakness, muscle pain, and various types of soreness in the head and abdomen.
Influenza is caused by several strains of the family of viruses Ortomyxoviridae, which are divided into types A, B and C. The three main types tend to cause similar symptoms, although they are not antigenically related. So, if you are infected with one type, it does not provide immunity against other types. Type A viruses lead to large epidemics of influenza, and type B causes small localized outbreaks, while type C viruses generally do not cause illness in humans. Between periods of pandemic, viruses undergo constant rapid evolution(a process called antigenic variation) in response to immune onslaught in humans.
Periodically, influenza viruses undergo major evolutionary changes due to the acquisition of new genome segments from another influenza virus, in fact becoming a new subtype from which there is no immunity.
5. Croitfeldt-Jakob disease
Croitfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare fatal degenerative disease of the central nervous system. It is found all over the world and appears with probability one in a million, with slightly higher incidence rates among certain populations, such as Libyan Jews.
The disease most often occurs among adults aged 40 to 70 years, although there have been cases among younger people. Both men and women suffer from it equally.
The onset of the disease is usually characterized by vague psychiatric and behavioral changes, followed by progressive dementia accompanied by visual impairment and involuntary movements. There is no cure for the disease and it is usually is fatal within a year from the onset of symptoms.
The disease was first described in 1920 by a German neurologist Hanz Gerhard Kreutfeld And Alphonse Jacob. Croitfeldt-Jakob disease is similar to other neurodegenerative diseases such as kuru, which occurs in humans, and scabies, which occurs in sheep. All three diseases are types of transmitted spongiform encephalopathy due to the characteristic spongy pattern of neural destruction in which the brain tissue appears to be filled with holes.
6. Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism, characterized by an impairment of the body's ability to produce or respond to insulin, and thereby maintain the desired blood sugar level.
There are two main forms of diabetes. Diabetes mellitus type 1, formerly called insulin-dependent diabetes and juvenile diabetes, and it usually begins in childhood. This is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system of a person with diabetes produces antibodies that destroy the beta cells that produce insulin. Since the body can no longer produce insulin, daily injections of the hormone are required.
Diabetes mellitus type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes usually appears after age 40, and becomes more common as age increases. It occurs due to sluggish insulin secretion from the pancreas or decreased response in the target cells that secrete insulin. He associated with heredity and obesity, especially upper body obesity. People with type 2 diabetes can control their blood sugar levels through diet and exercise, as well as insulin injections and other medications.
7. AIDS (HIV)
AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is a transmitted disease of the immune system that is caused by HIV (immunodeficiency virus). HIV attacks slowly destroying the immune system, the body's defense system against infections, which makes a person susceptible to various infections and certain malignancies, which ultimately leads to death. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, during which fatal infections and tumors occur.
HIV/AIDS spread in the 1980s, especially in Africa, where it is believed to have originated. Several factors contributed to the spread, including increased urbanization and long-distance travel to Africa, international travel, changing sexual morals, and intravenous drug use.
According to the 2006 UN report on HIV/AIDS, about 39.5 million people are living with HIV, about 5 million people become infected each year, and about 3 million die from AIDS each year.
8. Asthma
Asthma is a chronic airway disease in which the inflamed airways tend to constrict, causing episodes of suffocation, difficulty breathing, coughing and chest tightness that range in severity from mild to life-threatening. Inflamed airways become hypersensitive to a variety of stimuli, including dust mites, animal dander, pollen, air pollution, cigarette smoke, medications, weather conditions and exercise. Wherein stress can make symptoms worse.
Asthmatic episodes may begin suddenly or may take several days to develop. Although the first episode can occur at any age, half of cases occur in children under 10 years of age, and it occurs more often in boys than in girls. Among adults, the incidence rate is approximately the same in women and men. When asthma develops in childhood, it is often associated with inherited susceptibility to allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, animal dander, which cause an allergic reaction. In adults, asthma can also develop in response to allergens, but viral infections, aspirin and exercise can also trigger the disease. Polyps and sinusitis are also common in adults with asthma.
9. Cancer
Cancer refers to a group of more than 100 different diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer affects one in three people born in developed countries and is one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide. Although cancer has been known since ancient times, significant improvements in cancer treatment were made in the mid-20th century, mainly through timely and accurate diagnosis, surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy drugs.
Such advances have led to a decline in cancer mortality and have also led to optimism in laboratory research in elucidating the causes and mechanisms of the disease.
Thanks to ongoing advances in cell biology, genetics and biotechnology, researchers now have fundamental knowledge of what happens in cancer cells and in cancer patients, facilitating further progress in preventing, diagnosing and treating the disease.
10. Cold
The common cold is an acute viral illness that begins in the upper respiratory tract, sometimes spreads to the lower respiratory tract, and can cause secondary infections in the eyes or middle ear. Cold can cause more than 100 viruses, including parainfluenza virus, influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, reoviruses and others. However, rhinoviruses are considered the most common cause.
The term cold is associated with the feeling of cold or exposure to a cold environment. It was originally thought that colds were caused by hypothermia, but research has shown that this is not the case. They catch a cold in contact with infected people, not from the cold, cold wet feet or drafts.
People can carry the virus and not experience symptoms. The incubation period is usually short, ranging from one to four days. Viruses begin to spread from an infected person before symptoms appear and spread peaks during the symptomatic phase.
There is such a variety of viruses that cause colds that It is practically impossible for a person to develop immunity to colds. To date, there are no medications that can significantly shorten the duration of the disease, and most treatment is aimed at mitigating symptoms.
They lived on our planet long before us... Viruses are very different - some of them lead to the common flu, others to. It's the latter that we'll talk about. What viruses are currently considered?
1 Ebola virus
It shook up the entire globe, reminding people that in some cases medicine also throws up its hands. It appeared in Africa and advanced to Europe and America at an alarming rate. Given globalization and the lack of borders and customs for viruses, there remains a possibility that this killing hemorrhagic fever will end up on our territory. There are many ways and means of spread, the most common being infection from a sick person through his blood.
2 Rabies virus
Rabies is different in that it can affect both people and animals, in particular dogs, cats, wild animals (wolf, fox, hedgehog), and less commonly birds. The virus enters the blood and causes severe damage to the nervous system; Treatment with a rabies vaccine is mandatory. Once symptoms appear in a person, the disease is incurable.
3 Human immunodeficiency virus
The human immunodeficiency virus, the plague of the 21st century, causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), which undermines the work of the entire body, and most of all. Since the first case was registered (early 90s of the twentieth century), more than 25 million people have died from AIDS. There is no vaccine for it, and now the search for a vaccine against HIV is one of the extremely pressing issues.
4 Variola virus
It is called Variola and has 2 varieties: Minor - leads to death in 1-3% of cases - and Major - death, according to some data, occurs in 90% of cases (wow, “major”...). Despite the fact that cases of smallpox are mentioned in the ancient Egyptian papyrus of Amenophis I, written 4 thousand years BC, the cause of this terrible disease, which deprives people if not of life, then of sight, was established only at the beginning of the twentieth century. , and only in the 70s did humanity manage to “pacify” the smallpox virus.
It has three genera A, B and C and strains H1, H2, H3, as well as N1 and N2. Infection occurs through airborne droplets, so it often develops into a pandemic. An example of this is the Spanish flu, from which more than 50 million people died, as well as the bird flu that recently spread across our land, which was neutralized. Despite the huge number of drugs, the most reliable means of preventing the disease is vaccination. All age groups are susceptible to the flu, so stay away from sneezing and coughing fellow citizens.
6 Hepatitis B virus (HBV)
Causes hepatitis type B, the most common infectious liver disease in the world. In 20-30% of cases it leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer, and can also develop into a chronic form. In some parts of Asia, 10% of the population are carriers of chronic hepatitis B.
7 Hepatitis C virus (HCV)
Causes a severe form of hepatitis. Hepatitis C is called the “gentle killer”: it is asymptomatic (most infected people feel great for many years), in 70-80% of cases it becomes chronic. There is no treatment or vaccine for it.
8 Virus of the family Flaviviridae
Causes yellow fever, an acute viral disease that can be contracted from a mosquito bite in the tropics and subtropics of Africa and South America. It is called “yellow” because of the jaundice that develops in many patients. This disease ends in death in half of the cases. Since the 80s XX century The incidence of yellow fever has begun to increase again, and there are many reasons for this: decreased human immunity, climate change, urbanization and even deforestation.
9 Arboviruses of the family Flaviviridae
Causes a disease called Dengue fever. This disease received its second name - bone crush fever - for its symptoms: pain in the spine and joints, especially the knees. It is also accompanied by chills, elevated body temperature, nausea, redness of the face and eyes, and rash. It has 2 forms of the disease, with the more severe – hemorrhagic – death occurs in 50% of cases.
10 Rotavirus
Causes the so-called rotavirus gastroenteritis, or “stomach flu” - an acute intestinal infection. The main danger is severe dehydration. Modern medicine has learned to cope with this disease, but in countries where there is no adequate medical treatment, rotavirus poses a serious danger: it claims 61,000 lives every year.
Scary? And yet, there is already a precedent for curing a person from the Ebola virus, and work on a vaccine against HIV does not stand still.
There is an opinion that animals, plants and humans predominate in numbers on planet Earth. But this is actually not the case. There are countless microorganisms (microbes) in the world. And viruses are among the most dangerous. They can cause various diseases in humans and animals. Below is a list of the ten most dangerous biological viruses for humans.
Hantaviruses are a genus of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with rodents or their waste products. Hantaviruses cause various diseases belonging to such groups of diseases as “hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome” (mortality on average 12%) and “hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome” (mortality up to 36%). The first major outbreak of disease caused by hantaviruses, known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, occurred during the Korean War (1950–1953). Then more than 3,000 American and Korean soldiers felt the effects of a then unknown virus that caused internal bleeding and impaired kidney function. Interestingly, it is this virus that is considered the likely cause of the epidemic in the 16th century that exterminated the Aztec people.
Influenza virus is a virus that causes an acute infectious disease of the respiratory tract in humans. Currently, there are more than 2 thousand of its variants, classified into three serotypes A, B, C. The group of viruses from serotype A, divided into strains (H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, etc.) is the most dangerous for humans and can lead to epidemics and pandemics. Every year, between 250 and 500 thousand people worldwide die from seasonal influenza epidemics (most of them children under 2 years of age and elderly people over 65 years of age).
Marburg virus is a dangerous human virus first described in 1967 during small outbreaks in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt. In humans, it causes Marburg hemorrhagic fever (mortality rate 23-50%), which is transmitted through blood, feces, saliva and vomit. The natural reservoir for this virus is sick people, probably rodents and some species of monkeys. Symptoms in the early stages include fever, headache and muscle pain. In the later stages - jaundice, pancreatitis, weight loss, delirium and neuropsychiatric symptoms, bleeding, hypovolemic shock and multiple organ failure, most often the liver. Marburg fever is one of the top ten deadly diseases transmitted from animals.
Sixth on the list of the most dangerous human viruses is Rotavirus, a group of viruses that are the most common cause of acute diarrhea in infants and young children. Transmitted by the fecal-oral route. The disease is usually easy to treat, but kills more than 450,000 children under five worldwide each year, most of whom live in underdeveloped countries.
Ebola virus is a genus of virus that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It was first discovered in 1976 during an outbreak of the disease in the Ebola River basin (hence the name of the virus) in Zaire, DR Congo. It is transmitted through direct contact with the blood, secretions, other fluids and organs of an infected person. Ebola fever is characterized by a sudden increase in body temperature, severe general weakness, muscle pain, headaches, and sore throat. Often accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired renal and liver function, and in some cases internal and external bleeding. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, in 2015, 30,939 people were infected with Ebola, of whom 12,910 (42%) died.
Dengue virus is one of the most dangerous biological viruses for humans, causing dengue fever, in severe cases, which has a mortality rate of about 50%. The disease is characterized by fever, intoxication, myalgia, arthralgia, rash and swollen lymph nodes. It is found mainly in the countries of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, where about 50 million people are infected annually. The carriers of the virus are sick people, monkeys, mosquitoes and bats.
Smallpox virus is a complex virus, the causative agent of a highly contagious disease of the same name that affects only humans. This is one of the oldest diseases, the symptoms of which are chills, pain in the sacrum and lower back, rapid increase in body temperature, dizziness, headache, vomiting. On the second day, a rash appears, which eventually turns into purulent blisters. In the 20th century, this virus claimed the lives of 300–500 million people. About US$298 million was spent on the smallpox campaign from 1967 to 1979 (equivalent to US$1.2 billion in 2010). Fortunately, the last known case of infection was reported on October 26, 1977 in the Somali city of Marka.
The rabies virus is a dangerous virus that causes rabies in humans and warm-blooded animals, which causes specific damage to the central nervous system. This disease is transmitted through saliva from the bite of an infected animal. Accompanied by an increase in temperature to 37.2–37.3, poor sleep, patients become aggressive, violent, hallucinations, delirium, a feeling of fear appear, soon paralysis of the eye muscles, lower extremities, paralytic respiratory disorders and death occurs. The first signs of the disease appear late, when destructive processes have already occurred in the brain (swelling, hemorrhage, degradation of nerve cells), which makes treatment almost impossible. To date, only three cases of human recovery without vaccination have been recorded; all others ended in death.
Lassa virus is a deadly virus that is the causative agent of Lassa fever in humans and primates. The disease was first discovered in 1969 in the Nigerian city of Lassa. It is characterized by a severe course, damage to the respiratory system, kidneys, central nervous system, myocarditis and hemorrhagic syndrome. It is found mainly in West African countries, especially in Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia, where the annual incidence ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 cases, of which 5 thousand lead to the death of the patient. The natural reservoir of Lassa fever is polymammated rats.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the most dangerous human virus, the causative agent of HIV infection/AIDS, which is transmitted through direct contact of mucous membranes or blood with bodily fluid of the patient. During HIV infection, the same person develops new strains (varieties) of the virus, which are mutants, completely different in reproduction speed, capable of initiating and killing certain types of cells. Without medical intervention, the average life expectancy of a person infected with the immunodeficiency virus is 9–11 years. According to 2011 data, 60 million people have become infected with HIV throughout the world, of which 25 million have died, and 35 million continue to live with the virus.
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The Anna Kournikova virus got its name for a reason - recipients thought they were downloading photos of a sexy tennis player. The financial damage from the virus was not the most significant, but the virus became very popular in popular culture, in particular it was mentioned in one of the episodes of the 2002 TV series Friends.
2. Sasser (2004)
In April 2004, Microsoft released a patch for the LSASS (Local Security Authentication Server) system service. A little later, a German teenager released the Sasser worm, which exploited this vulnerability on unpatched machines. Numerous variations of Sasser have appeared in the networks of airlines, transportation companies and healthcare providers, causing $18 billion in damage.
3. Melissa (1999)
Named after a Florida stripper, the Melissa virus was designed to spread by sending malicious code to the top 50 contacts in a victim's Microsoft Outlook address book. The attack was so successful that the virus infected 20 percent of computers worldwide and caused $80 million in damage.
The creator of the virus, David L. Smith, was arrested by the FBI, spent 20 months in prison and paid a $5,000 fine.
While most of the malware on our list caused trouble, Zeus (aka Zbot) was originally a tool used by an organized crime group.
The Trojan used phishing and keylogging techniques to steal bank accounts from victims. The malware successfully stole $70 million from victims' accounts.
5. Storm Trojan (2007)
Storm Trojan has become one of the fastest-spreading threats, as within three days of its release in January 2007, it reached an 8 percent infection rate on computers worldwide.
The Trojan created a massive botnet of 1 to 10 million computers, and due to its architecture of changing code every 10 minutes, Storm Trojan turned out to be a very persistent malware.
The ILOVEYOU (Chain Letter) worm disguised itself as a text file from a fan.
In fact, the love letter was a serious threat: in May 2000, the threat spread to 10 percent of networked computers, forcing the CIA to shut down its servers to prevent further spread. Damage is estimated at $15 billion.
7. Sircam (2001)
Like many early malicious scripts, Sircam used social engineering techniques to trick users into opening an email attachment.
The worm used random Microsoft Office files on the victim's computer, infected them and sent malicious code to address book contacts. Sircam caused $3 billion in damage, according to a University of Florida study.
8. Nimda (2001)
Released after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Nimda worm was widely believed to have links to al-Qaeda, but this was never proven, and even Attorney General John Ashcroft denied any connection to the terrorist organization.
The threat spread through multiple vectors and brought down banking networks, federal court networks, and other computer networks. Cleanup costs for Nimda exceeded $500 million in the first few days.
At just 376 bytes, the SQL Slammer worm packed a lot of destruction into a compact package. The worm shut down the Internet, emergency call centers, 12,000 Bank of America ATMs and knocked out much of South Korea from the Internet. The worm was also able to disable access to the World Wide Web at a nuclear power plant in Ohio.
10. Michaelangelo (1992)
The Michaelangelo virus spread to a relatively small number of computers and caused little actual damage. However, the concept of a virus to “blow up a computer” on March 6, 1992 caused mass hysteria among users, which was repeated every year on this date.
11. Code Red (2001)
The Code Red worm, named after a variety of Mountain Dew, infected a third of Microsoft's IIS web servers upon release.
He was able to disrupt the whitehouse.gov website by replacing the main page with the message “Hacked by Chinese!” The damage caused by Code Red worldwide is estimated at billions of dollars.
12. Cryptolocker (2014)
Computers infected with Cryptolocker encrypted important files and demanded a ransom. Users who paid the hackers more than $300 million in Bitcoin received access to the encryption key, while others lost access to the files forever.
The Sobig.F Trojan infected more than 2 million computers in 2003, crippling Air Canada and causing slowdowns in computer networks around the world. The malware resulted in $37.1 billion in cleanup costs, one of the most expensive remediation campaigns of all time.
14. Skulls.A (2004)
Skulls.A (2004) is a mobile Trojan that infected Nokia 7610 and other SymbOS devices. The malware was designed to change all icons on infected smartphones to the Jolly Roger icon and disable all smartphone functions except making and receiving calls.
According to F-Secure, Skulls.A caused minor damage, but the Trojan was insidious.
15. Stuxnet (2009)
Stuxnet is one of the most famous viruses created for cyber warfare. Created as part of a joint effort between Israel and the United States, Stuxnet targeted uranium enrichment systems in Iran.
Infected computers controlled the centrifuges until they were physically destroyed, and informed the operator that all operations were proceeding as normal.
In April 2004, MyDoom was named “the worst infection of all time” by TechRepublic, for good reason. The worm increased page load times by 50 percent, blocked infected computers from accessing antivirus software sites and launched attacks on computer giant Microsoft, causing service failures.
The MyDoom cleanup campaign cost $40 billion.
17. Netsky (2004)
The Netsky worm, created by the same teenager who developed Sasser, traveled around the world via email attachments. The P version of Netsky was the most widespread worm in the world two years after its launch in February 2004.
18. Conficker (2008)
The Conficker worm (also known as Downup, Downadup, Kido) was first discovered in 2008 and was designed to disable antivirus programs on infected computers and block automatic updates that could remove the threat.
Conficker quickly spread across numerous networks, including defense networks in the UK, France and Germany, causing $9 billion in damage.
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