Guy D McCardle, Jr., 20+ years as a Board certified Infection Prevention Practitioner
Updated 3h ago · Upvoted by Mohammad Omar Khan, MBBS Medicine and Healthcare & Forensic Science, National University of Sciences and Technology, Pa…
Originally Answered: What is the deadliest disease ever?
The deadliest disease ever has been around for at least 20 million years.
It
may have killed Alexander the Great, King Tut and at least six popes.
Some sources claim that almost half of all humans that ever lived have
been killed by it.
What is the name of this murderous menace? Malaria.
Malaria
is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects both humans and
other animals. Some mosquitos carry a parasitic protozoan of the genus Plasmodium. This is the killer.
Mosquitos are the vector, the carrier. If we look at mosquitos as a bomber, then Plasmodium is the bomb.
** The deadly culprit
There are five species of the parasite that cause the disease. Of these, Plasmodium falciparum
is the most deadly. According to the 2018 world malaria report, there
were 219 million cases of malaria in 2017. From this number 435,000
infected people died.
Approximately 70% of malaria deaths occurred in children age 5 or younger.
** The good news is that the number of deaths has decreased in recent years.
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