Viruses have probably been around for at least 10’s of millions of years and have managed to make a great living by ripping off our DNA. According to that, we listed the Top 10 Most Dangerous Virus Of All Time.
I’m talking about the viruses here with the highest known case fatality rates which are how experts measure the deadliness of a disease the percentage of people diagnosed with it who end up dying from it. Remember the Spanish flu? 1917 to 1918, 30 million people had been died due to Spanish Flu people worldwide that basically changed the course of modern history.
That was a strain of virus called H1N1 and it had a case fatality rate to 10 to 20 percent viruses.
What is the definition of virus?
Viruses are protein covered scumbags full of nucleic acid so they are not generally considered living things.
Now let’s move to our topic:
Most Dangerous Viruses Of All Time
We will consider the most dangerous viruses according to the Mortality rate or fatality rate.
1 / 10.Spanish Flu
- Total Deaths: 20-50 Million
- Time Duration: 15 months between 1918-1920
- Origin(Country): Spain

The number one deadliest virus of our list is Spanish flu. It infected more than 500 million people worldwide. Estimated to have caused 20–50 million deaths in 1918–1919 and more than the roughly 17 million people killed during the First World War.
At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat Spanish flu. Citizens had to wear masks, schools, businesses, and theaters were shut down.
Spanish flew is on the 1st position of our Top 10 most dangerous viruses Of all-time list.
2 / 10.SARS-CoV
- Total Deaths: 800-1000
- Origin(Country): China
The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, first appeared in 2002 and identified in 2003 in the Guangdong province of southern China, according to the WHO.
It is an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir and first infected humans in southern China in 2002. It affected more than 26 countries and more than 8000 cases had been confirmed of SARS-CoV.
The transmission of SARS-CoV is primarily from person to person. If a person infects thru SARS-Cov then the virus appears to have occurred mainly during the second week of illness. Symptoms are influenza-like and include fever, malaise, myalgia, headache, diarrhea, and shivering (rigors). Although fever is the most frequently reported symptom.
3 / 10.SARS-CoV2 (Corona-Virus)
- Total Deaths: 728,000 (as of August 2020)
- Time Duration: Running (2020)
- Origin (Country): China

SARS-CoV2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) comes from the same large family of viruses as SARS-CoV, known as Coronavirus, and was first identified in December 2019 in the Wuhan city from china. In December 2019 Retrospective investigations by Chinese authorities have identified human cases of SARS-Cov2 (Corona VIrus) with the onset of symptoms.
It is found that some of the earliest cases had a link to a wholesale food market in Wuhan, China but some did not. Covid-19 originated in bats, scientists say. Since its appearance, the virus has infected tens of thousands of people in China and millions of others worldwide.
It has a mortality rate of about 2.3%. Symptoms including dry cough, fever, and shortness of breath, and the disease can progress to pneumonia in severe cases. People that are older or have bad health conditions seem to be most at risk of having severe disease or complications.
Corona Virus is also in our Top 10 Most Dangerous Virus Of All Time list.
4 / 10.Hong Kong flu (H3N2 Virus)
- Total Deaths: 1-4 Million
- Time Duration: 1968-1969
- Origin(Country): China
The next Deadliest virus on the list is The Hong Kong flu also known as the 1968 flu pandemic. Hong Kong flu killed an estimated one to four million people globally. Hong Kong flu was caused by the H3N3 strain of the influenza A virus.
The first case was confirmed on 13 July 1968 in Hong Kong. By September 1968, it had reached Europe, the Philippines, India, Australia. It reached Japan, South America, North America by 1969. There is a possibility that this outbreak actually began in mainland China before spreading to Hong Kong, but this is not confirmed.
Due to total deaths from Hong Kong flu, It can also be in our Top 10 Most Dangerous Virus Of All Time list.
5 / 10.(H5N1) pdm09
- Total Deaths: 195,086-402,719
- Detected in: 2009, China
Well, no doubt you’ve heard of the H5N1/09 virus. The 2009 H5N1 virus was very different from H1N1 viruses that were circulating at the time of the pandemic.
(H1N1)pdm09 virus was very different from the strain of H1N1 viruses, vaccination with seasonal flu vaccines offered cross-protection against the virus infection. While a vaccine was produced, it was not available in large quantities until late November.
There were approx. 40-60million cases and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.
6 / 10.Ebola
- Total Deaths: 11,323
- Origin(Country): Republic of Congo in 1976

Ebola, which is also known as Ebola virus disease, is a viral hemorrhagic fever. The disease was first identified in 1976. Ebola has a high risk of death, killing 25% to 90% of those infected, with an average of about 50%.
This is often happening due to low blood pressure from fluid loss. The virus spreads blood from infected humans. It can be infected through the blood of animals.
Ebola is also in our list of dangerous virus of all time.
7 / 10.Rabies
- Total Deaths: 59,000 human deaths annually
- Origin Year: 1768
- Origin(Country): United States
Rabies virus called Rabies Lyssavirus comes from a virus family called Rhabdoviridae. Rabies virus is a Neurotropic Virus that means it infects neuro cells what we call neurons and its life cycle is zoonotic gets from one animal to another and both are the members here.
Being a zoonotic virus it gets transmitted from one animal to another through biting it’s mostly in mammals. A person can be infected if an animal with Rabies bits. It has a nearly 100% fatality rate. \
Although rabies vaccines for pets, which were introduced in 1920 have helped to reduce the infections of the virus. This condition is still a serious problem in some parts of India and parts of Africa.
It causes inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals. Rabies virus causes approx. 55,000 human deaths each year.
8 / 10.HIV
- Total Deaths: 770,000 (According to WHO data)
- Origin Year: 1920
- Origin(Country): Republic of Congo
HIV is a human immunodeficiency virus. If a person has HIV that damages the immune system over time and causes AIDS. AIDS stands for ‘Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome’.
Some of the common AIDS infections are inflammation of the tissues covering the brain and spinal code, called ‘Meningitis Inflammation’.
HIV passes through person to person through infected body fluids. HIV can enter a person’s body while sharing drug injection needles (blood), during unprotected sex, Breastfeeding, blood products, and contaminated blood.
There is no cure for HIV although drugs called ‘antiretroviral‘ medications can reduce the amount of HIV in the body of a human.
These drugs prevent the assembly, creation, and spread of new viruses. Treatment for the opportunistic infection of AIDS is medication specific for each type of infection.
HIV is also in our list of dangerous virus of all time.
An estimated 0.6-0.9% of adults aged 15–49 years worldwide are living with HIV.
9 / 10.Dengue
- Total Deaths: 3,312,040

Dengue is caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of the genus flavivirus or species Dengue virus transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus 80s also called Backbone fever Dandy Fever or Dengue Fever. It was first appeared in the 1950s in the Thailand and Philippines Philippines and has since spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe.
More than 40% of the world’s population now lives in areas where Dengue is endemic. Causes of the viruses is that cause Dengue fever spread by mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti and sometimes also by Aedes albopictus, Aedes mosquitoes usually found in urban and suburban areas as they like to breed man-made containers like tires, flower pots, household water these mosquitoes can survive sub-freezing temperatures which have allowed to spread dengue to spread to cooler climates.
The viruses that cause Dengue fever spread by mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti and sometimes also by Aedes albopictus, Aedes mosquitoes usually found in urban and suburban areas as they like to breed man-made containers like tires, flower pots, household water these mosquitoes can survive sub-freezing temperatures which have allowed to spread dengue to spread to cooler climates
Symptoms: Fever, headache and pain behind the eyes, several muscles and joint pain between the 2nd and 5th day of fever tendency to bleed from the skin or nose bloody stools or heavy menstrual bleeding nausea and vomiting.
10 / 10.Hanta Virus
Total Deaths: Mortality rate of about 38%
In 1993 Hantavirus first gained wide attention in the U.S. Health authorities found hantavirus from a deer mouse living in the home of one of the infected people in the US.
More than 600 people in the U.S. have now contracted HPS, and 36% have died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus is not transmitted from one person to another, rather, people contract the disease from exposure to the dropping of the infected mice.
A different hantavirus caused an outbreak in the 1950s. It happened during the Korean War, according to a 2010 paper in the journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews.
More than 3,000 people became infected, and about 12% of them died.
IN the U.S, researchers realized later that it is linked with the disease to mice.
Nipah virus
- Total Deaths: ~50 to 75% risk of death
The next deadliest virus of the list is Nipahvirus with over 50% – 70% Mortality rate. The virus named NipahVirus is transmitted from animals to humans. It can be transmitted through contaminated food or between people or groups.
Take for instance Nipah which has an average case fatality rate of about 50-70% percent it’s named for a town in Malaysia where it was discovered in 1999 among pig farmers seems a bunch started coming down with severe respiratory problems and inflammation of the brain that caused hallucination and seizures and not the good kinds hallucination and seizures and not the good kinds outbreaks soon followed in India and Bangladesh. This time among people who had eaten fruit that was tainted by bats that carried the virus.
Marburg Virus disease
- Total Deaths: Fatality ratio of up to 88%
- Origin Year: 1967
- Origin: South Africa
Marburg Virus Disease has a fatality ratio of up to 88%. It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus. The first outbreak in 1967 killed 23% of the Scientist.
The thing is Marburg keeps showing up mainly in central Africa and when it does it kills more than 80% of its victims. Unlike NEPA though which can be transmitted through the air Marburg can only be contracted by coming into the content with an infected person’s body fluids or tissues which are all over the place when they’re infected with them.
When German scientists first isolated the Marburg virus they realized that they were dealing with a whole new class of a virus that has a completely different shape and attacked the circulatory system what they discovered was that the virus family filoviridae this unwholesome lot includes a cousin of Marburg that is the second most fatal disease on our list.
Here are the most Dangerous Virus Of All Time
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