11. Infectious diarrhea
Rotavirus, the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines), is a diarrheal disease that can be deadly. In 2013, rotavirus killed 215,000 children under the age of 5 globally, according to the WHO. About 22 percent of those deaths occurred in India alone; and overall most of the deaths occur in children living in low-income countries.
The virus causes dehydration, brought upon by severe, watery diarrhea and vomiting. There are four rotavirus vaccines that are considered highly effective at preventing the disease, the WHO says.
12. Ebola
Though rare, Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an often fatal infection caused by one of the five strains of the Ebola virus. The virus spreads very rapidly, overcoming the body’s immune response and causing fever, muscle pain, headaches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Some who contract Ebola also bleed from the nose and mouth in the late stages of the disease — a condition known as hemorrhagic syndrome.
The Ebola virus is spread from person to person through bodily fluids, and a healthy person can contract the virus by coming into contact with an infected person’s blood or secretions or by touching surfaces (like clothing or bedding) containing these fluids.
The largest outbreak of Ebola began in West Africa in 2014. When the outbreak ended in 2016, approximately 11,325 people had died in the outbreak, with 28,652 suspected and confirmed cases of the virus reported, according to the CDC. In August 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced an outbreak of Ebola in its northern province of Kivu. That outbreak, which has infected 3,428 people and killed 2,246 as of February 2020, is still ongoing. A vaccination for close contacts of Ebola patients, called rVSV-ZEBOV, was approved in 2019.