Top 5 most brutal Diseases!

Have you ever wondered what the true horrors of the nature are? If you are a hipocondriac or are sensible to crude images, DO NOT KEEP reading, as some of them are quite disturbing. I mean it!

If you are, like many people, also fascinated by them, prepare yourself!

Caused by an advanced from of Lepromatous Leprosy, a form of lepra.

This disease causes granulomas, small nodules which appear anywhere in the body. After some time, they start deforming the skin and all the tissues around it (even facial bones) which become distorted and abnormally big. Fortunately, the bacteria (Mycobacterium lepra) it's only transmitted after long periods of contact with infected people, and it can be treated with antibiotics like Rifampicin.

Still, the incredible level of disfiguration and pain (both physical and psycological) this disease causes, coupled with the eternal stigma attached to it since ancient times, makes it deserving of the fifth spot of the most brutal diseases ever.

This disease is caused by Echonococcus granulosus, a parasite worm also called the "Hyper tape-worm". When a human ingests egg-contaminated food, the parasite gets to the stomach and then travels through the blood until it finds a confortable place to stay. After some time, glomerular formations know as cysts (balloon-like) appear in this places.

This cysts are deadly because they can grow anywhere in the body (even the brain) until they reach massive proportions (more than 30 cm), sometimes containing millions of worm larvae inside them. If they break, they kill the host almost instantly due to an anaphylactic reaction, making the extraction procedure extremely dangerous.

The parasites are only found in certain parts of Africa, but be very careful of what you eat if you ever travel there!

This disease is a scary one. The bacteria enters innocently through a little wound or bruise you may have. Maybe just a shaving cut....

If your inmune system is somehow compromised, this bacteria (Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphilococcus aureus, which naturally live in our skin) may enter through the wound and start "digging".

After a few weeks, the infeccion is already deep down and the first symptoms appear. The bacteria is literally a "flesh-eater", killing every single cell it encounters and necrotizing the entire tissue around it, until it's either stopped or the patient is killed.

The main problem is that at this stage it's usually too late for antibiotics, and amputation is always required to stop it from spreading.

An important fact about this disease is that everybody is in theory susceptible to it, since it's caused by normal "skin bacteria". That's why you should always remember to disinfect any cut with common hydrogen peroxide, even if it's small!

One legendary and horrible disease indeed. You may have heard some facts about it, but let me tell you why it's the most deadly disease ever.

The rabies disease is caused by a virus (Lyssavirus) which infects the host entering through an animal bite, usually a dog or a bat. Then, if left untreated, it slowly begins ascending to the brain trough the peripheral nerves.

Once there, it causes inflamation of the brain and a myriad of symptoms, which include the famous hidrophobia. Why?

Well, the virus, once in the brain, somehow "takes control" of it, causing a total breakdown of all the regulatory functions. The patient loses it's capacity to do automated things like swallowing, hence the fear of water- affected people are just afraid to die choked by a simple glass of water! After a few days, the brain can't control anything in the body anymore (it even goes against it!), so the patient dies from a multi-organic failure.

Now, the most impressive feature of this disease is that it has a 100% motality rate. No, it's not a typo, is always lethal if it gets to the brain stage, although the vaccine is effective in the first 72 hours.There is only one documented case in medical history where a pacient survived the disease.

It was a woman. The doctors, after trying the usual methods, decided that only one thing could be done: putting her into a coma. While in coma, the brain is "switched off", so it somehow protected her from her own "rabies-controlled" brain and she could survive, but not without severe brain damage. Unfortunately, it has never been replicated again and all subsequent coma induced patients have also died.

For all of this, rabies is definitely worthy of the second spot.

What could be worse?

The absolute king of deadly diseases. This virus (Ebolavirus) is responsible for the so-called "viral hemorragic fever".

This virus does all kinds of terrible things, but it's known that the main mechanism of damage is by infecting the endothelial cells of the arteries (which "build" the circulatory system) and destroying them.

By doing this, the blood loses it's capacity to coagulate, which results in the pacient bleeding out of virtually every orifice of the body, including the eyes. Death comes from hypovolemic shock, caused when there's so little blood left in the body that the pressure drops below acceptable levels.

There is currently no treatment for this virus and it has a fatality rate of around 80%. Added to the fact that it's easily transmitted trough the air or any fluid, it is indeed a force to be reckoned with. Ironically, this brutalo diseases is even "too deadly" for it's own good: people affected by it can't go anywhere and die very soon, sometimes preventing the disease from expanding.

A breakout in any developed country would be cathastrophic, and that's why it's classified as a "Biosafety Level 4 agent" and worthy of the first spot in this article!

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