All it takes is one dangerous pathogen and a tightly populated area for a disease to kill thousands if not millions of people. While there never has been a disease that has completely wiped out humanity, several diseases have certainly come close and many experts believe it may be an even deadlier disease, rather than war or famine, that ultimately does us in.
Here Is A List Of Diseases That Could Possibly Kill Us Tomorrow:
A resurgence of the bubonic plague
A return of the Bubonic Plague on a worldwide scale would be swift and brutal, and it would likely be deadlier than the previous one that swept through Europe in 1346 and ultimately claimed the lives of half the continent’s population. It is believed that the plague came to Europe via trade routes from Asia, and specifically on fleas that were carried by rats and other kinds of ground rodents. Ships from the eastern Mediterranean set sail for ports on the southern European coasts and the disease spread from there.
But if you think that the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, is a thing of the past then you seriously need to think again. There are a small handful of people who continue to catch the Bubonic Plague in isolated pockets across the world, so it could only be a matter of time before the plague spreads again to claim more lives in ways far more tragic than the Black Death of the 1300s.
A deadlier version of the swine flu
A type of influenza virus, the swine flu starts off small but can quickly turn into a large scale epidemic because it can so easily transmit from one person to another. Most of us should remember the swine flu from the scare that happened in the middle of 2010. Back then, the fatality rate was not high enough for it to threaten the world’s population, but it’s more than possible for the swine flu to return faster and deadlier than it did in the past. The virus begins in pigs and then transfers to birds before transferring to people, and a fatal virus that sweeps through the air would be enough to threaten the world population as a whole.
A spreading of the Ebola virus
Everybody has heard of Ebola at this point as a result of the outbreaks that occurred in western African villages, where in some areas it claimed the lives of nearly ninety percent of people who were infected. Fortunately, there are no recorded cases of Ebola infecting anyone in urbanized areas. Ebola begins as a virus carried by bats who then infect apes and monkeys, who in turn then infect people who come into contact with the animals.
So far, we are very lucky that the outbreaks of Ebola have been almost exclusively limited to remote villages and areas. But who is to say that the disease won’t one day expand out of those limited regions and infect more people? After all, bats host the virus and if they travel far enough and infect more animals, it’s easy to see how the disease could spread. Ebola continues to be treated as a serious risk that must be contained, so let’s just hope that the containment procedures currently underway continue to be successful.
A large scale outbreak of the Marburg virus
The Marburg Virus is not just fatal, it’s highly contagious as well. It is believed to be closely related to the Ebola virus. The first recorded instance of the Marburg virus was in 1967 in Germany and Yugoslavia. Health researchers and medical professionals discovered that the virus had been transported to Germany and Yugoslavia via monkeys from eastern Africa who carried the disease when they were shipped up to Europe.
Fortunately, Marburg was contained and then eliminated in Germany and Yugoslavia at the time, but more isolated pockets of outbreaks continued throughout Africa, and in many of the cases where it popped up over eighty percent of people infected ultimately died from the disease. The most recent instance of Marburg happening was in 2008, again in Africa.
Marburg first appears in the form of muscle cramps and aches throughout the body, but can then quickly develop into more serious symptoms as skin peeling off and bleeding resulting throughout the body. It’s a very serious disease that is also among the most painful.
The next time that Marburg resurfaces and spreads, we must hope and pray that we are able to contain it like we did in Germany and Yugoslavia, but if we aren’t so lucky then it could develop into one of the deadliest diseases in human history.
The unknown
Finally, the disease that strikes next could be one that has never been recorded before. It’s very difficult to predict when diseases will strike and it’s even more difficult to predict the type of disease as well. However, it is likely that the next bad epidemic that threatens the worldwide population will be a zoonotic disease, meaning it originates as a virus with animals and then transfers to humans.
Epidemics are a serious threat to humanity and the scary thing about them is that we have no control over them. Yes, we have medications, treatments, and prevention measures for many of the diseases that we know of, but we cannot control where and when they occur and how fast they spread, or when they will end.
As a prepper, diseases are one of the top things that you must prepare for. Yes, terrorist attacks, nuclear spills, an EMP attack/grid down scenario, a new world war, economic collapse, and famine are all serious threats and things that we should prepare for as well, but diseases can spread across the entire world and claim millions of lives in ways that no other threats can.
Bugging out of infected areas (assuming you aren’t already infected), adopting clean sanitation measures, taking personal hygiene seriously, and having first aid equipment and medical gloves and masks on standby are all measures that you can take to reduce the chances of you catching a disease when it hits.
