by Lorelei Cohen

Created on: August 23, 2010

What is the most dangerous virus in the world? There have been a handful of deadly viruses which have swept across the world killing millions in their pathway. Is it possible that one of these old threats could mutate, and in today's global world spread in a like destructive sweep around the world once again, or is the world's most dangerous virus one that is yet to emerge?

The first reported case of Ebola virus appeared in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The virus received it's name after the Ebola River Valley where it first appeared. This illness has had a fifty-three percent to ninety percent death rate, and has an average death rate of eighty-three percent over the 27 years that it has been documented. Fortunately this illness has been confined to small clusters of the population and has then run it's term without expanding globally.

The HIV or Aids virus made it's appearance known in 1981. Statistics taken in 2008 showed that more than two and a half million people became infected with the HIV virus that year, two million people died from it during that year, and that an estimated 33.4 million people world wide were living with the Aids virus. So could the HIV / Aids virus be the most dangerous virus in the world? There have been an estimated 25 million deaths from this illness since it was discovered in 1981 and, with no known cure, it's numbers are still rising.

The Influenza or flu virus could currently be considered the most dangerous virus in the world. It has the ability to mutate and to spread around the world to create a pandemic form of illness that we currently have no resistance to. Statistically speaking the Influenza virus has killed more people globally than any other virus. The 1918 Spanish flu outbreak affected twenty to forty percent of the world's entire population, and in the two years that it was active, it  killed almost fifty million people worldwide. 

In 1945 the discovery of a flu vaccine averted pandemics like the Spanish flu virus outbreak from once again occurring. Yet the Influenza virus continues to kill thousands of people each year and there were very real concerns that the H1N1flu pandemic of 2009 could equal that of the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. Luckily some individuals, in particular seniors, showed resistance to this virus and a flu vaccine was quickly introduced to further protect large portions of the population. But could the Influenza or common flu virus still be the most dangerous virus in the world?

The Avian flu virus or H5N1flu virus is still lying in wait. Commonly known as the bird flu virus, this Influenza strain was able to bypass pigs, and leap directly from bird into human. It is also known that there are a number of bird flu strains currently out there. Could one of these be the Influenza virus strain which mutates to kill millions once again?

Could some other yet undetected Influenza, or one of our older known flu viruses, be the virus which strikes again in epidemic proportions?

The Influenza or flu virus may indeed be the most dangerous virus currently in the world.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola

http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

http://www.flufacts.com/impact/history.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yambuku

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