How Diseases Spread

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How Diseases Spread

Worldwide, roughly 150,000 people die per day.
About 55 million per year.

Of those, around 100,000 per day
Or 2/3’ds die of age-related causes

Pick Your Poison

The diseases you get often depend on how wealthy of a country you live in.

GNI per capita:
Low income: $1,035 or less
Lower middle income: $1,036 to $4,085
Upper middle income: $4,086 to $12,615
High income: $12,616 or more

Top 10 causes of death:
[#deaths per 100,000 population]

High income countries:
Ischemic heart disease: 158
Stroke: 95
Trachea bronchus, lung infection: 49
Alzheimer’s disease: 42
COPD: 31
Lower Respiratory Infection: 31
Colon rectum cancers: 27
Diabetes: 20
Hypertensive heart disease: 20
Breast Cancer: 16

Upper-middle income countries:
Stroke: 126
Ischemic Heart Disease: 107
COPD: 50
Trachea, bronchus, lung disease: 31
Diabetes: 23
Lower Respiratory Infections: 23
Road Injury: 21
Hypertensive heart disease: 20
Liver Cancer: 18
Stomach Cancer: 18

High-income countries:
7/10 deaths occur among those 70 years or older

Only 1/100 deaths is among someone 15 and younger

Most common causes of death:
cardiovascular diseases, cancers, dementia, COPD and diabetes.
Lower respiratory infection is the only leading infectious cause of death.

Low-income countries:
Only 2/10 deaths are among those 70 years or older

4/10 deaths occur among children 15 and younger.
–Most common causes of death:
Infectious diseases including lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDs, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis

In 2012, 6.6 million children died before the age of 5.
99% of these deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.

Leading causes: prematurity, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, trauma, diarrhoeal diseases, and malaria.

Historically

Infectious diseases were much more prevalent

The Plague of Justinian
Year: 541-542[3]
Number of people killed: 25 million
Symptoms: Fever, headache, weakness, swelling black boils
Spreads: Fleas, infected animals, human-to-human[4]

The Black Death
Year: 1347-1352[5]
Number of people killed: 200 million
Symptoms: Fever, headache, weakness, swelling black boils
Spreads: Fleas, infected animals, human-to-human[4]

The Third Plague Pandemic
Memphis Yellow Fever
Year: 1878[6]
Number of people killed: 5000+
Symptoms: Pain, black vomit, liver and kidney failure
Spreads: Mosquitoes

The 1916 Polio Epidemic
Year: 1916
Number of people killed: 6,000
Symptoms: Fever, headache, vomiting, meningitis, paralysis[7]
Spreads: Fecal-oral contact, saliva, human-to-human, food, water

The 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic
Year: 1918-1919[8][9]
Number of people killed: 30 million
Symptoms: Fever, cough, aches, headaches, vomiting
Spreads: Air, surfaces, human-to-human

Indiaís Smallpox Epidemic
Year: 1974[10]
Number of people killed: 15,000 in India
Symptoms: Headache, fever, sores, rash, delirium, blindness
Spreads: Surfaces, face-to-face, bodily fluids[11]

And new rising threats

Due to:
Failed healthcare systems
Increasing numbers of un-immunized kids
Increased global travel

Ebola
Year: 2014[12][13]
Number of people killed: Currently 5,000
Symptoms: Flu, vomiting, hemorrhaging
Spreads: Infected animals, human-to-human, bodily fluids

Measles[14]
Year:2014
Number of cases: 600
Symptoms: high fever, rash, infection of the eye, ear, and throat[15]
Spreads: human-to-human, surfaces

Whooping Cough[16]
Year: 2014
Number of cases: 70,000 (2012-13)
Symptoms: raspy cough, fever
Spreads: human-to-human, surfaces, air

Enterovirus D68[17]
Year: 2014
Number of cases: 700+[18]
Symptoms: respiratory infection, fever, rash
Spreads: human-to-human, surfaces, air

Citations: