Ebola has a mortality rate of 90%. This sounds very, very high to me. I’m not doubting the number but I was wondering if it would be safe to say that this is atypical of viral diseases.
I understand the source of Ebola outbreaks is unknown. It is clear that Ebola epidemics generally burn themselves out because of the high mortality rate.
Is there a site that provides the mortality rates for other viral diseases?
bump
I read a fun book a few years ago called The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. It talked about a lot of the big viral diseases. She did say that the Ebola Zaire strain is the one with up to 90% mortality. The Sudan strain was more of a 60% mortality. I don’t remember the mortality rates of other viral diseases but I am pretty sure the mortality rate of 90% is unusual with the possible exception of the Rabies virus which is almost always fatal once the victim is showing signs of the disease. With less than a handful of people having survived the disease the mortality rate is probably more like 99.9999%.
Wiki article on Ebola.
By the way, if you like reading about viruses and other killer microbes, I highly recommend the afore mentioned book, The Coming Plague.
Viral diseases tend to have a very high mortality rate when they first emerge, but quickly evolve to a lower mortality rate - there’s no point in killing a host before it can pass you on to another victim.