interesting diseases

Pneumonia might not conjure up the same dread as diseases like rabies or smallpox, but this lung infection can be deadly, especially for those older than 65 or younger than 5. A person can also get pneumonia from a fungal infection, parasites or reactions to certain medicines, Adalja told Live Science in September 2016.

The person who has this syndrome can still speak their mother language, but their pronunciation changes so much that other people think that the person speaks with a foreign accent. This disease disrupts the synthesis of collagen which leads to: the fragility of blood vessels, over-flexibility of the joints, dislocations, sprains, tissue deformation and other dangerous consequences. Learn more about the diseases being researched at BRI. Most of us take showers and swim in pools without a second thought. At the moment, there are no effective preventive or treatment measures, but scientists managed to find the gene that is responsible for fibrodysplasia. 23 Unique Animals We Can’t Help but Ooh and Aww Over, 15 Old Items Your Grandparents Still Have That Cost a Fortune Today, 21 People Who Shared Their Little Moments That Became Paramount Memories, 20 Tattoos That Will Teleport You to a Fairytale World, “I Want Superpower to Live Without Sleep.” An Artist Draws Warm Illustrations That Could Find a Place in Any Mom’s Heart, I’ve Been Trying to Not Harm the Environment for 5 Years, and I Want to Talk Honestly About the Pros and Cons of My Choice, Victoria Beckham Shared the Secret to Her 20-Year Marriage, and We All Should Take Notes, 20 People Who Broke Free From Their Comfort Zones and Won, 11 Pastimes From Our Childhood That Look Crazy for Today’s Kids, 20+ Chillaxed Pets That Prove Sunbathing Is the Solution to Any Problem.

The Sin Nombre hantavirus was first identified in the U.S. in 1993 after a mysterious disease killed several young people in the Four Corners region of the Southwest. Experts argue that no link has been confirmed between electromagnetic fields and sufferers’ unpleasant reactions; the true cause, however, has yet to be found. Menkes Disease is a disorder of copper metabolism. Substances called porphyrins build up to toxic levels in the liver and when released turn the color of urine and feces purple.

Cholera causes acute diarrhea that if left untreated can kill within hours. This infectious disease can be caused by a number of things, including fungi, viruses and bacteria. There are four rotavirus vaccines that are considered highly effective at preventing the disease, the WHO says. Some rare diseases are very real and if you catch them, you're a goner.

About 770,000 people worldwide died from HIV/AIDS in 2018; 49,000 of those deaths were in the Americas, according to the WHO. The (Seriously Sweet) History of Doughnuts, 21 Fantastic Pictures Of Female Skateboarders From The 1970s, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch.

The condition was coined for Queen Marie Antoinette of France—whose hair reportedly turned white the night before her guillotining—but is also said to have affected famous figures like Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Luckily for those living and traveling in one of the 47 countries in Central America, South America and Africa where yellow fever is endemic, there is a highly effective vaccine against the disease. Mysterious diseases. Polymelia can result in an unusual number of any extremity—including the penis, in some cases—and proves to be a hassle for most sufferers. Sometimes the self-injurious behavior becomes so bad that patients must have their nails or teeth removed for their own safety. Thank you for signing up to Live Science. While this doesn’t seem to put the baby in any sort of pain, it can have lasting psychological effect on the child due to their bright red, scaly skin. By 1951, the disease was eliminated from the U.S. with the help of the pesticide DDT. In bathing suit icthyosis, sufferers develop the same scaly lesions, though instead of appearing in the soft joints like the armpits, genitals, or elbows, they appear on much larger parts of the body, like the stomach, back, and head.

When the outbreak ended in 2016, approximately 11,325 people had died in the outbreak, with 28,652 suspected and confirmed cases of the virus reported, according to the CDC. There have been several treatments developed to decrease the amount of fluid in the brain, though there is still no way to cure it completely. Despite that, the symptoms of the Ulas family can’t seem to be explained. This list compiles some of the rarest and most bizarre disorders that afflict both infants and adults. These are medical conditions that are so strange, you might not have even heard of them yet. You might be familiar with anthrax from the anthrax attacks in September 2001 in the U.S., which killed five people and sickened 17, and which collectively are considered the worst biological attack in U.S. history. This means that a fall can cause bone to grow within the muscles and tendons throughout the body. So far there have been less than 20 known cases.

There’s usually a very grim prognosis for those that are diagnosed with harlequin ichthyosis due to complications with infections that develop in the fissures.

People with the disease typically experience flu-like symptoms.

It was named after evolutionary biologist Uner Tan, who claimed this disorder to be one of evolutionary origins. Uner Tan syndrome is a rather recent and rare disorder that was first seen in a case study of the Ulas family in Turkey. At the age of one or two years old, children with this condition begin to show signs of aging, such as slow growth and hair loss. Symptoms are seen most commonly in pregnant women or children. By destroying part of the immune system, HIV leaves its victims vulnerable to all sorts of opportunistic diseases.

NY 10036. He turned blue after he had been taking colloidal silver for a long time trying to treat his dermatitis. The patients who have this condition don't have the amygdala in their brains which means that they are unable to experience fear. 15: Leukocyte Adhesions Deficiency (LAD) Syndromes. The deer mouse is a carrier of the "Sin Nombre" virus, which causes hantavirus.

In the non-medical world, people often use the word ‘disease’ to refer to infections, sickness, illness, or even addictions. And about 5 percent of all reported cases resulted from accidental transmission of the disease via contaminated surgical equipment or certain eye and brain tissue transplants. Also known as whooping cough, pertussis is a bacterial infection of the respiratory tract caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Marburg virus has other things in common with Ebola, as well. There are many sicknesses doctors can cure with the swish of a pen across prescription pad. Clinical Research Fact Sheet. Potentially fatal, tuberculosis or "TB" is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which usually attacks the lungs and causes the signature bloody coughs. Also known as "sleeping sickness," but idifferent from the sleeping sickness that the tsetse fly transmits. Research has linked the condition to migraine headaches. The initial symptoms of rabies can be hard to detect in humans, as they mimic that of the flu and include general weakness, discomfort and fever. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic.

In this disease, the functional, beating heart develops outside the chest cavity and is therefore prey to any number of risks and dangers. You can probably guess why this condition is named after Lewis Carroll’s famous book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Periodically, however, the viral infection becomes much more devastating: A pandemic in 1918 killed about 50 million people worldwide. Simply touching a person with leprosy will usually not cause infection, and a healthy person's immune system can typically ward of infection with the bacteria that cause the disease, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This happens due to abnormal levels of histamine, but the mechanism that causes the increase in the levels of histamine is unclear. (The vast majority of cases and deaths have occurred in Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located.). And among people infected with TB (but not HIV), 5% to 10% become sick or infectious at some time during their lifetimes. It's very odd, that tourists from Asia usually don't have Stendhal syndrome, perhaps because their culture is very different. Eyes are in danger, too. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a rare genetic disease that affects the connective tissue.

It's classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) — transmissible because it can be spread from cattle to humans and spongiform because it causes a characteristic "spongy" degeneration of brain tissue. Richard Stockton is a freelance science and technology writer from Sacramento, California. The disease is characterized by a high fever, sore throat, headache, weakness, tremors, and falling asleep anywhere.

Most people who suffer from HED must constantly manage and check their body temperature, while remaining out of the sunlight and heat for long periods of time due to their lack of sweat glands. This condition can also be found in several types of animals. Sufferers of foreign accent syndrome randomly wake up one day and begin speaking with a foreign accent.

Doctors believe it to be viral, but the exact virus has yet to be determined. A documentary was also filmed for BBC in 2006 known as The Family That Walks on All Fours to show their story to the public.

The growths are actually warts, resulting from a rare genetic mutation. This build-up leads to gout, bad muscle control, and kidney problems. Which of the diseases described in this article surprised you the most? The bacteria tend to contaminate food and water through infected feces. In 2013, rotavirus killed 215,000 children under the age of 5 globally, according to the WHO. First up: It feels awful to do it, and this disease makes you do it again and again and again…, 6 Of The Most Interesting Diseases To Have Ravaged Humanity.

Most common bacterial diseases and common viral diseases can be gotten over quickly or treated medically by a doctor. Just seeing glasses on someone else’s nose can make sufferers react. People can become infected with a hantavirus if they come into direct contact with the bodily secretions of these animals or if they breathe in virus-carrying particles from those secretions that have become aerosolized. Like dengue, yellow fever is a member of the Flavivirus family, and it spreads from one person to the next by mosquitos.