I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I don’t really know…. small pox was once the deadliest but this has likely changed. Perhaps it is malaria?
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I don’t know for sure. I have an idea that the Ebola virus is fairly deadly – highly contagious and usually fatal. I think all outbreaks have been pretty much contained to date – most of them happen in small villages in Africa, and often wipe out the population. An interesting point is that diseases that are *really* deadly don’t have much of an opportunity to spread, because all their victims die too quickly.
A better definition of “deadly” might be how many people it kills per year. As Mark suggested, I think malaria has to be up there on this measure. I just found this “top ten” list:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Top-10-Infectious-Diseases-That-Have-Killed-Most-People-70741.shtml
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Viruses tend to top the list. Medical advances (e.g. vaccines) have reduced the impact of diseases like Small Pox, which was once killed 25-30% of those infected and left many of the rest blind or maimed. So how deadly a disease is needs to be considered together with the medical preventatives and treatments that are available.
Ebloa would definitely be up at the top of my list as well. As I understand it some strains can kill up to 90% of those who contract it! The severity of the disease is compounded by the fact that, where it occurs, the majority of medical facilities are usually basic. To date there is no vaccine for this virus.
Rabies is another disease – if someone is bitten and they hadn’t been vaccinated it is almost always fatal. Fortunately there is a vaccine. Unfortunately it is prevalent in many poorer countries where the vaccine is unlikely to be available to most people.
Malaria is another one, particularly in young children, though again because of medical preventatives and treatments it is not the scourge it once was.
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I’m not really sure as it’s not my area, although I imagine that what people consider to be the deadliest disease changes over time. This is because new vaccines, cures and treatments are constantly being developed.
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