Ten Diseases That Can't Be Cured

By: Megan C.

Even though medical science has advanced rapidly over the last decades, there are still plenty of diseases that just cannot seem to be cured.

The following is a list of the top ten incurable diseases.

10. Ebola

Fatality Rate: 50 to 90 percent.

Ebola is a relatively new disease: it first emerged in 1976 in Congo in central Africa. The virus has taken its name from the Ebola River. In Congo in 1995, an entire village of 400 people died from the disease. Ebola is characterized by extreme fever, rash, and profuse hemorrhaging. If you don't live in Africa, you won't have to worry too much about getting infected: the disease only seems to be in central Africa. Scientists do fear though that the a more dangerous variant of Ebola will eventually emerge.

9. Polio

Fatality Rate: 5-10 percent in case of paralytic polio.

In the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children were struck by Polio every year. Now that we have polio vaccines, polio has been eliminated from most of the world, and is endemic only in several countries in Africa and South Asia, especially in India. Most people probably associate polio with paralysis. In fact, it only affects fewer than 1 percent of the persons infected by the polio virus. Over 90 percent of infected people won't notice any signs of illness at all. If you do notice signs, they'd include fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, and muscle pains and spasms.

8.Systemic lupus erythematosus (Lupus)

Fatality Rate: 5-22 percent.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder that causes chronic inflammation in various parts of the body. It can be fatal, though with recent medical advances, fatalities are becoming increasingly rare.

Systemic lupus erythematosus may affect virtually any organ or structure of the body, especially the skin, kidneys, joints, heart, gastrointestinal tract, brain, and serous membranes. While systemic lupus can affect any area of the body, most people experience symptoms in only a few organs.

7. Influenza

Fatality Rate: unknown

Influenza, also known as the flu, or grippe, is an acute viral infection that is marked by fever, chills, and a generalized feeling of weakness and pain in the muscles, together with varying degrees of soreness in the head and abdomen. Although it is sometimes confused with the common cold, influenza is a much more severe disease and is caused by a different type of virus.

Three influenza pandemics occurred in the 20th century and killed tens of millions of people, with each of these pandemics being caused by the appearance of a new strain of the virus in humans.

A deadly avian strain named H5N1 has posed the greatest risk for a new influenza pandemic since it first killed humans in Asia in the 1990s. Fortunately, this virus has not mutated to a form that spreads easily between people.

6. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Fatality rate: 100 percent.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare fatal degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease occurs throughout the world at an incidence of one person in a million. The disease commonly occurs in adults between the ages of 40 and 70. Both men and women are affected equally.

The onset of the disease is usually characterized by vague psychiatric or behavioral changes, which are followed within weeks or months by a progressive dementia that is often accompanied by abnormal vision and involuntary movements. There is no known cure for the disease, which is usually fatal within a year of the onset of symptoms.