By Otto Rodriguez
MiamiDadeHealth.com
Contagious diseases are a burden to the public health systems in every country and the resources to fight them are directly related to how strong the economy of those nations is.
Here is a list of some of the most common contagious diseases and how many people they kill each year:
HIV/AIDS: 1.6 million deaths
Even though HIV takes a heavy toll each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the population of people living with the disease in 2016 was about 36.7 million people.
Since antiretroviral therapy, known as ART, became available in the mid-1990s, life expectancy for those infected with HIV has dramatically increased.
Tuberculosis: 1.3 million deaths
Despite the death toll for this airborne disease, there is encouraging news: 7.3 million people developed TB and survived in 2012.
The recovery usually requires a regimen of several drugs over a six- to nine-month period, and the treatment for those with drug-resistant forms of TB can last up to two years.
Pneumonia: 1.2 million children under the age of 5
According to WHO, this disease is the world’s leading killer of children, more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. The risks of developing the disease are also high for the elderly and persons with a compromised immune system.
Infectious Diarrhea: 800,000+ children under the age of 5
The majority of cases, which amount to close to 1.8 billion globally each year, could be prevented and treated with better hygiene and sanitation, along with access to clean food and water.
Malaria: 445,000 deaths
According to the latest World Malaria Report, released in November 2017, there were 216 million cases of malaria in 2016, up from 211 million cases in 2015. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 445,000 in 2016, a figure very similar to the previous year (446,000).
The world records about 200 million malaria cases each year, according to WHO.
