# Mortality rates of Ebola and other viral diseases

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 16, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934 "2007-10-16T19:25:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934/1 "2007-10-16T19:25:08Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934/2 "2007-10-16T22:55:51Z")

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bump

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**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934/3 "2007-10-16T23:27:05Z")

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I read a fun book a few years ago called [The Coming Plague](http://www.lauriegarrett.com/index_coming.html) 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola).  
By the way, if you like reading about viruses and other killer microbes, I highly recommend the afore mentioned book, _The Coming Plague_.

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**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mortality-rates-of-ebola-and-other-viral-diseases/422934/4 "2007-10-16T23:51:34Z")

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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.