20 of the Scariest Diseases in the World

‘Raccoon roundworm’ is absolutely horrifying
20 of the Scariest Diseases in the World

The human body is like the Final Destination franchise: It makes no sense, but if anything, that only makes it scarier. Like, what cosmic prankster decided to put our breath holes so close to our eat holes? Why is our abdominal cavity, one of the most important parts of our functioning, also one of the squishiest? 

There are just so many different ways you could die at any time. Final Destination proved that, too.

And those are just the mechanical failures. If you thought the body itself was a Lovecraftian nightmare, consider all the viruses, bacteria or plain old random mutations that might turn you from a normal body one moment into a writhing, foaming, oozing mass of barely recognizable humanity. They were conveniently listed after u/ser Guilty_Direction_501 asked r/AskReddit, “Doctors/biologists of Reddit, what is the most terrifying disease you can get?”

flamingbabyjesus 2y ago Locked in syndrome is pretty terrifying. You are completely paralyzed. But your brain works. But you can't tell anyone and they think you're gorked and brain dead.
Dragoness42 2y ago Rabies. Lots of things will kill you faster or in more gory/graphic ways, but you'd be hard pressed to find something else that will kill you with such certainty and psychological horror beforehand.
Old-Jackfruit4335 2y ago Propably the cluster-headache or suicide-headache is one of the worst things you can get. It can stay for months or even years and the pain is so intense that a lot of people that suffer from it for a long time commit suicide, where it got its name from
DefrockedWizard1 2y ago undifferentiated cervical cancer. It's a slow, painful, debilitating, smelly mess that eventually in a best case scenario eats it's way into a big blood vessel and they bleed to death but many end up dying of bowel perforation or obstruction Have your youngsters get the HPV vaccine
PMME_ur_lovely_boobs 2y ago Resident doctor here, a terrifying type of illness I haven't seen mentioned yet are head and neck cancers in general. They tend to have high suicide rates compared to other cancers due to the terrible quality of life they can have due to masses pushing into their airways or esophagus. Had a patient not long ago with a kind of throat cancer caused by HPV which led his bottom teeth needing to be removed and not being able to eat solid food.
2y ago Biologist here: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Your muscles and tendons slowly turn to bone rendering you immobile, in constant pain due to pinched nerves, and unable to speak or eat. You basically just become a fully sentient statue that is in constant agony.
GlowCavern 2y ago Despite the fact that we have a vaccine for it, I have been absolutely petrified of diphtheria since reading The Cruelest Miles. Without treatment, the thought of slowly choking to death on mucus membranes covering your lymph nodes.. terrifying.
Gr4ph0n 2y ago The extreme clenching of every muscle in your body until your teeth shatter, bones break, and your body constricts itself to death. We are constantly reminded of this disease, but with vaccination and modern medicine, people are mostly unaware of how horrible it can be outside of historical and medical texts. Tetanus
LeaflnAGarden 2y ago Edited 2y ago Hiatus hernia, can't be cured 100 % even after surgery so for lifetime you have dyspepsia, can't eat spicy food, slowly your apetite is reduced, you lose weight. Even though it's not life threatening or debilitating like other diseases mentioned here, I have seen two people suffer from this and the pain they are in is something which scares me. (also the amount of pain depends on person to person.)
Allfunandgaymes 2y ago Edited 2y ago Any sort of viral hemorrhagic fever, most notably ebolavirus and hantavirus. Your body and blood are so saturated with virus that your immune system has a total meltdown and begins carpet bombing every single tissue in a desperate attempt to salvage something of the virus-riddled flesh sack that is now you. This has little effect, as the viruses most commonly associated with VHF deliberately provoke, target, and destroy immune cells. You bleed out from the inside as even your blood vessels tear and spill their contents into adjacent tissue. If you survive, you will
Too_Too_Solid_Flesh 2y ago Edited 2y ago I'm surprised nobody has mentioned naegleriasis (a.k.a., primary amoebic meningoencephalitis), which can occur when water containing the amoeboflagellate Naeglieria fowleri is inhaled through the nose and reaches the brain. People get it by swimming in N. fowleri-infected freshwater. Once it's in your brain, it starts eating away at astrocytes and neurons, leading to a range of horrifying neurological symptoms that appear about 9 days after infection. Most people who are infected die within a fortnight and the first-line treatment for the disease only saves fewer than 5% of the people treated.
2y ago I currently have two residents with Huntington's disease, one is much more progressed than the other and the worse part is most people aren't aware they have it until their 30-50's and it's hereditary, by the time you know you may already have kids. One of my residents has 4 brothers who also have the disease, the only one in the family spared from it was the sister who suffers from survivors guilt
DrAcula1007 2y ago For something that's fairly common - Cirrhosis. Your liver has failed, you're waiting for a transplant if you're even eligible for one. You have to get your belly fluid drained every week. If you stop taking your lactulose or having BMs, you will get confused. You can get terrible, life threatening episodes of vomiting / pooping blood because of your varices. Your liver failure can actually lead to kidney failure, shortening your life span even more. You're basically dying slowly and your family is being burdened with your illness.
Apprehensive_Kale127 2y ago Raccoon roundworm. You inhale a bit of dust from raccoon faeces and the eggs end up in your lungs. Human brains have some gene expression that cues the roundworm to head to the gut of carnivores and it gets confused. It ends up burrowing through your brain until it finds your optic nerves and encysts. You get severe seizures and brain damage before it mellows out with permanent blindness. Absolutely lovely.
DLY2103 2y ago M Biologist here. I have a fascination with parasites... my 'favourite' being trypanosomes, responsible for african trypanosomiasis (african sleeping sickness). The parasites make you severely ill and pass your blood-brain barrier, put in a coma, and while you're in your deep coma they kill you. By the time you know you have it, its too late.
MagicSPA 2y ago I graduated in biological sciences. The most terrifying disease I ever heard of was an unknown one (of several) that affected natives of South America when exposed to pathogens brought over by the conquistadores. I don't think it had a name - it was too short-lived for that - but its effect on those Aztecs/Incas that it infected was to make their skin slough off easily. Like, very easily - there were accounts of panicked natives running screaming through the streets, blood pouring from areas on their body where the skin had just slipped off, with no part being spared - their hands, their joints - even
Spiritual-Gap3695 2y ago Edited 2y ago Anton syndrome: maybe not the scariest but definitely still very strange and distressing. Essentially you get bilateral visual cortex strokes (with some parietal cortex damage), so you're completely blind. But you don't know you're blind. These people will swear on their mother's grave that they can see, but then walk straight into a wall. Imagine going the rest of your life genuinely believing you can see, despite constantly being told otherwise.
JonnyRottensTeeth 2y ago The worst i feel is dermal lymphoma. You get timors on your skin that turn into open sores. In extreme cases 70% of your body is covered with weeping painful sores. Just changing the bandages can take 4+ hours and requires opioids for the pain. You are constantly at risk for sepsis which will kill you. Horrible way to die!
2y ago Biologist here, I'm gonna go with prion diseases. They can hang out in your body for decades before causing symptoms, have no known treatments, and are very difficult to destroy. I'm also personally uncomfortable with the idea of proteins in my body misfolding. My nightmare scenario is a CWD becoming transmissible to humans.
withinyouwithoutyou3 2y ago Fournier's gangrene. Do a Google image search if you're a brave one.

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