The coronavirus usually comes to mind first when we talk about viruses.
This virus caused havoc all over the world when it started to spread globally in 2020.
Millions of people died as a result of it, and its mutations are still affecting people.
Certain viruses, like the coronavirus, occasionally present problems for humans.
There are currently about 400,000 known viruses in the world, and that number could very well increase in the future.
We are going to talk about a few of these dangerous viruses that are very dangerous for human health today.
HIV Virus
The history of the HIV virus is complicated; it first appeared in chimpanzees and gorillas, then spread to monkeys, and finally infected humans.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is in Central Africa, is where this virus is thought to have originated.
The first documented instance of HIV occurred in 1959, when a Congolese man or woman mysteriously passed away.
Despite the fact that the cause of death wasn’t initially determined to be HIV, analysis of samples that had been preserved over the years confirmed it to be so. In 1986, India experienced its first known case of HIV.
Approximately 98 percent of people with HIV die from the virus, making HIV infection one of the leading causes of death.
The HIV virus still hasn’t found a permanent cure or vaccine.
Millions of people around the world tragically pass away from HIV, with India accounting for 10% of the world’s HIV cases.
HIV attacks T cells, which are important elements of the immune system, wreaking havoc on the body.
T cell depletion impairs the body’s defenses against even minor illnesses, frequently leading to fatalities.
HIV-positive people can live relatively long lives, sometimes longer than two decades.
AIDS, on the other hand, causes a rapid decline in life expectancy, frequently to just 2 or 3 years.
The virus’s quick mutation rate is one of the biggest obstacles to developing an effective HIV vaccine.
It mutates so quickly that developing a vaccine has proven to be very challenging.
Marburg Virus
The African fruit bat, which is a native of that continent, is the main source of the Marburg virus.
The virus was spread from fruit bats to monkeys, who then infected humans.
The first known case of Marburg virus infection occurred in 1967 as a result of an unintentional release in a German laboratory.
Tragically, seven laboratory workers who were exposed to the virus died as a result of this incident.
The Marburg virus causes a serious illness marked by a high fever, followed by a sharp decline in platelet counts, which frequently results in fatal internal bleeding.
The mortality rate for those infected with this virus is about 88 percent.
Remarkably, the Marburg virus is a member of the same virus family as the Ebola virus.
In African mines and caves, where people can become carriers through contact with fruit bats or contaminated objects, human activity is the main means of Marburg virus transmission.
Once a person is infected, the virus can be passed from one person to another through a variety of bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, sweat, stool, semen, breast milk, eye and nasal mucus, and close contact with an infected person.
High fever, headache, muscle aches, nausea, diarrhea, and body aches are all typical signs of the Marburg virus.
The ELISA or PCR methods are typically used for diagnosis.
The infection caused by the Marburg virus is regrettably incurable.
The main goal of treatment is to control the symptoms. Supportive care may involve giving ill patients oxygen, platelet transfusions, and electrolyte support.
Ebola Virus
Ebola virus is a very dangerous virus. About 50% of patients die after being infected with it. The virus spreads from infected animals such as monkeys, chimpanzees and bats to humans.
The Ebola virus is spread through contact with the body fluid or blood of an infected person.
Ebola virus also has symptoms like high fever, headache, vomiting, body ache, but for its correct identification, you will have to get a blood test done.
This virus does not spread through water, air, food and mosquitoes. When infected with this virus, the patient gets internal bleeding and he dies.
The first case of Ebola was found in the Congo in 1976 and is named after the Ebola River that flows there.
The worst form of Ebola was revealed in 2014 when thousands of people died in Africa due to this virus. However, now a vaccine is available to avoid the Ebola virus.
Rabies
Rabies has a long history. The first recorded case of rabies was found in Babylon (Iraq) in 2300 BC. This disease spread by the bites of dogs, cats, rats is very dangerous.
Rabies virus affects our central nervous system and brain. Every year around 60,000 people all over the world die due to rabies.
99% of these people get rabies from the bite of a mad dog. The most dangerous thing about rabies is that once the patient has symptoms of rabies, the patient cannot survive.
Therefore, as soon as a dog or animal bites you, you should get its injection immediately. It is almost impossible to avoid if you are late and the symptoms are visible.
However, now the rabies vaccine is available for humans and pets.
Symptoms of rabies are sleeplessness, restlessness, nervousness, violent and aggressive behavior, difficulty swallowing, fear of water, confusion and excessive salivation in the mouth.
The patient dies within 2 to 10 days after the symptoms of rabies appear.
Smallpox
Smallpox is now completely eridicated but it was a very dangerous disease spread by the virus. Its seriousness can be gauged from the fact that only in the twentieth century, 300 million people died due to this disease.
This virus has caused the highest number of deaths in human history. This disease is caused by the Variola virus.
After its complete elimination in 1999, some samples of Variola virus have been kept in only two labs in the world so that research can be done on them.
These samples are with America and Russia. In smallpox, the patient had fever, fatigue and body aches and later developed a fluid-filled rash which later filled with pus.
These rash used to fall all over the body. It was an infectious disease with a patient mortality rate of about 30%.
Nowadays people consider smallpox and chickenpox to be the same because both have pox in their name and the symptoms of both are almost the same but they both spread due to different viruses.
Chickenpox is not so dangerous and it gets cured in a few days whereas smallpox no longer occurs because it has ended years ago.
Hanta Virus
The Hanta virus was first found near Hantan, a river in South Korea, and the virus was named Hanta virus after this river.
This virus is spread by rats but this virus does not affect animals and rats. Hanta virus is found in the feces and urine of rats.
When a rat infected with the Hanta virus excretes the feces of urine and a human comes in contact with this feces, he becomes infected with the Hanta virus.
This virus gets killed as soon as it comes in contact with sunlight. This virus does not spread from person to person. This virus targets our lungs and 40% of the patients infected with this virus die.
Due to this virus, we get flu-like symptoms like fever, headache, body ache, muscle pain, vomiting etc.
Water starts filling in the patient’s lungs and then slowly the patient dies. There is neither a vaccine nor a cure for the Hanta virus.
In most cases, the patient has to be admitted to the ICU if infected with it. The first case of hantavirus was detected in 1978 in South Korea.
After that in 1993, it spread rapidly in America and infected hundreds of people in which 36% of the patients died.
Not many cases of Hanta virus have been found in India. Only a few cases were found in 2008.
Influenza
Influenza is caused by the H1N1 virus, although it is not yet known where it originated. Its first known case was found in the US in 1918.
Influenza kills more than half a million people in the world every year. Every time a new strain of influenza comes along.
Sometimes it does not cause much harm and sometimes it takes a very severe form like the Spanish flu of 1918 due to which 40% of the whole world population was infected and about 50 million people died.
Swine flu is also influenza. This virus affects our respiratory system. Influenza virus spreads from person to person.
We all get influenza once in a year and it gets cured within a week. But many times its new strains cause catastrophic destruction by mutating.
In influenza, we have symptoms like cold, fever, cold, cough, body ache etc. You can fix this at home by taking some precautions.
But if you have trouble breathing, contact your doctor immediately. Influenza vaccine is available, but every year this virus comes with a new strain, so its vaccine has to be given every year.
People who are more than 65 years of age or children who are less than 5 years are more at risk of influenza.
Apart from this, those whose immune system is weak or those who already have a long disease, they are more at risk.
Dengue Virus
Dengue disease is caused by the bite of female Aedes mosquito and this virus is of four types, Dengue 1, 2, 3, 4.
Dengue is first mentioned in Chinese books in 420 BC, but it began to spread rapidly after World War II.
In India, a fever similar to dengue was spread in Chennai in 1780 but there is no recorded information about it. The first registered dengue case in India was found in Kolkata in 1963.
Every year about 100 million people worldwide are infected with dengue, of which 5% die. Dengue is also known as break bone fever because it causes pain all over the body.
Its symptoms include fever, headache, body pain, joint pain and eye pain.
This virus destroys our platelets due to which there is a shortage of platelets in our body and the person dies of internal bleeding.
There is no definite cure or vaccine for dengue. Dengue is treated according to its symptoms.
Rota virus
This virus is so dangerous that every year five lakh children die due to this virus all over the world.
Due to this, 100 out of 1000 children born around 1900 would die of diarrhea, but then the reason was not known.
Rota-virus was first discovered in 1973. Its virus is shaped like a wheel (in Latin the wheel is called rota), hence the name rota-virus.
This virus spreads through dirt and its infection causes diarrhea in children. In which children die of dehydration if not treated on time.
Rotavirus infection occurs only once in children under the age of five all over the world. Rotavirus vaccine is available nowadays.
Corona virus
There are many strains of this virus causing havoc all over the world and we will discuss about its three main strains here.
SARS
We can also call SARS the Baba of Corona virus. The first case of SARS came in 2003 in Guangdang, China, in which about 770 people died.
This virus came from bats to humans. It affects our lungs. It is an infectious disease that spreads from person to person.
SARS is also called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. SARS is an air-borne virus.
All its symptoms are similar to those of Covid 19. 10% of patients who are infected with SARS die. SARS vaccine is available.
Mers
Middle East respiratory syndrome is a virus of the family of Kovid. It also affects our lungs.
35% of patients infected with MERS die. Its symptoms are also like those of Covid-19. MERS was first found in Saudi Arabia, it spread from camel to human.
However, this virus does not spread from human to human. There is no vaccine and treatment is done on the basis of symptoms. In 2012, there were about 1000 deaths from MERS in Saudi Arabia.
Covid-19
The first case of Covid-19, the virus that caused the most havoc in the world, came in China’s Wuhan Lab in December 2019.
From here this virus spread all over the world and so far 51,00,000 people have died (by November 2021) from it.
This virus attacks our lungs. Still, there are continuous deaths due to this virus. But now the vaccine for this virus is available.
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