6 ms·
The three scariest afflictions to me are: Cancer, Rabies, and Prions
by personjerry 3y ago
The three scariest afflictions to me are: Cancer, Rabies, and Prions
- mikequinlan 3y agoNaegleria fowleri (aka brain-eating amoeba)
- threesevenths 3y agoIs there any significant chance of catching it without getting hot water from a freshwater source up your nose or being immunocompromised?
- mikequinlan 3y agoDeadly brain amoeba infects US tap water (2013) https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/deadly-brain-amoeba-infects-us-tap-water-first-time-8c11172643 https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/deadly-brain-amoeba-infec...
- hyperific 3y agoIt's on the rise as well (2022) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/21/brain-eating-amoeba-climate-crisis-naegleria-fowleri https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/21/brain-ea...
- matthewtse 3y agoI went wakeboarding in a freshwater lake a few years ago. On the first wipeout, my face smashed into the water, and it went very far up my nose. On getting up, I remembered "Naegleria fowleri", and wondered, hmmmm this might have killed me. Luckily no symptoms appeared over the next few days. I feel like wakeboarding should be banned in warm freshwaters.
- lettergram 3y agolol ban wakeboarding? Ah yes let’s ban fun because… > The risk of Naegleria fowleri infection is very low. There were 29 reported infections in the United States in the 10 years from 2013 to 2022, despite millions of recreational water exposures each year. By comparison, in the 10 years from 2011 to 2020, there were an estimated 4,012 unintentional drowning deaths each year in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/general.html https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/general.html You’re 150x more likely to drown. And even that is exceedingly unlikely - like 0.05% or something per year.
- Zenzero 3y agoOK then add in all of the suspect bacterial or viral meningitis that was actually N fowleri because it's "so rare".
- brianpan 3y agoContact lenses and tap water will do it. From your eye, it can travel to your lungs or brain. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21560-acanthamoeba-keratitis https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21560-acantha...
- throwup238 3y agoVibrio vulnificus! (Flesh eating bacteria found in warm waters like Florida)
- robbiep 3y agoSorry to ruin your afternoon but ALS is the terror that slowly cripples
- klipt 3y ago...and MS But of all those listed, cancer is far and away the most common and thus most likely to kill you in practice.
- krastanov 3y agoI do not think that is true anymore about MS. For most cases it is pretty manageable these days.
- s5300 3y ago[dead]
- piloto_ciego 3y agoIt’s better than it would have been in the early 90s by a huge margin, but it’s not that great. It’s very scary.
- fho 3y agoIt's even technically guaranteed that you get cancer if get old enough. Not a biologist, but if I got that correctly, every time your body replicates your DNA a bit of the end is cut of. There is a section of "garbage" at the end, but once that is gone the "functional" parts of the DNA are cut of. Once that happens you are guaranteed to develop tumors sooner or later.
- tux3 3y agoThe "garbage" at the end protects against cancer. It prevents cells from multiplying uncontrollably (and accumulating mutations in the process) by shortening the fuse at each generation. There's a hierarchy with stem cells at the top that live long, rarely divide, and have few mutations, and the children of the children ... of their children at the bottom divide often, but have a short fuse and a limited lifetime, so they don't keep accumulating mutations as much
- wombatpm 3y agoHaving read Laurie Gannet’s The Coming Plauge the possibility of air transmissible Ebola is on my list after Prions.
- huytersd 3y agoIt kills too quickly. You would have to hole up for 10-20 days and the infection will wipe itself out.
- azinman2 3y agoPost Covid what do you think the chances are of that happening now?
- all2 3y agoOnce people started seeing folks disintegrate in public I don't think it would be too much of an issue. In fact, I'd bet people would willingly hole up so they didn't catch that new plague that causes you to rot from the inside out.
- huytersd 3y agoIrrelevant I think. This is going to be brutal and very visible. Good riddance to the denialists at that point.
- baxtr 3y agoAnyone who played this virus game on their phone knows how difficult it is to wipe out all of humanity! You have to have the optimal mix of lethality and spread velocity.
- ahazred8ta 3y agohttps://www.lauriegarrett.com/the-coming-plague https://www.lauriegarrett.com/the-coming-plague
- leptons 3y agoI sometimes ponder that if HIV were airborne, there would be very few people alive right now. It would have travelled far and wide and infected practically everyone before we even knew what was happening, and long before there were any real mitigations, and there still isn't really a cure. It's only a matter of time before nature invents a virus that will work around our defenses and spread silently and then wham, 90% of humanity is gone.
- kevinpet 3y agoI would agree, except that I just watched a How To Cook That episode featuring rat lung worms transmission from slugs.
- markdown 3y agoThat's treatable though. And easy to avoid if you just wash your veggies properly before eating them.
- anonzzzies 3y agoAh. There is so much more… luckily chances of getting anything terrible outside cancer (which you will get if you get to be old enough) are slim. And cancer at old age is usually slow and fighting with other stuff that will kill you faster; bad heart, bad blood vessels, dementia, slipping in the bathtub etc.
- huytersd 3y agoHIV is still very much a scary disease. Sure you can take pills that extend your life but your remaining years will be filled with dread for which opportunistic disease is going to get you. Edit: I was wrong about rabies.
- Zenzero 3y ago> Rabies isn’t really a risk. Nearly everyone is vaccinated Oh my this is very very very false. People are rarely vaccinated for rabies. Only high risk people such as veterinarians are vaccinated. People who are bitten can be given PEP, but the vast majority of people are completely unprotected against rabies. If you live in the US there absolutely are many areas that have rabies infected wildlife. Rabies is 10000x worse to get than HIV.
- matthewtse 3y agoWell, it's worse if you don't realize you got it. I'd rather be infected with rabies, and receive a vaccine/cure immediately, than be infected with HIV, which I'd need to deal with chronically for the rest of my life.
- sterlind 3y agoif you're exposed to HIV and take post-exposure prophylaxis quickly enough, you can avoid lifelong infection. the trick is realizing you need it, which is why PrEP (pre-exposure) can be a good idea if you're at risk.
- huytersd 2y agoHIV PEP is only about 80% effective, which is good but still a 1 in 5 chance of getting it.
- Gare 3y agoNot true - most people are not vaccinated against rabies. Vaccination should be done ASAP after suspected infection, it's still effective.
- manmal 3y agoWhat about COPD. Non-smokers can get it, too, eg from silica dust exposure (also other materials).