What are some of the scariest diseases you heard/read about?

So yesterday I had the unfortunate opportunity to learn about the shope papilloma virus, which can be summarized as long black keratin spike-tumors growing out of a rabbit's face. It's as disturbing as it sounds◊. And a gif of thing in action.◊ Poor baby D:

Ugh just looking at it gives me chills. It's just so weird seeing something that looks like it'd be a graphical glitch in a videogame ACTUALLY happen IRL. Animals just get the nastiest Body Horror.

Everything in this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biohazard-Ken-Alibek/dp/0099414643

Weaponized EVERYTHING. Including tonnes of ICBM portable smallpox. And yeah, I said tonnes. And ICBM portable.

Locked In Syndrome

You can't move anything, but you are fully conscious.

That sounds pretty horrible.

Observe

Suggestion for this thread: WARN PEOPLE FIRST if you're linking to an article with graphic pictures. please and thank you.

Poor rabbit...

EWWW!

Locked in syndrome reminds me of sleep paralysis a bit. UGH that is just the worst feeling when you have it for the first time. For about a year I had chronic sleep paralysis and it was miserable. Then you start hallucinating which just makes it worse. You want to scream, but all you can hear is a faint muffle like some guy just turned the volume down to 1. I know how to fight it off more now but jeez man that was kind of stressful year.

Oh this guy at my dad's job had a daughter who got(fair warning, the pics in the following article are DISTURBING) meningitis which ended up in her losing her arms and legs. I saw a picture of her arm and it was all black and gangly like the baby pic in the article. Man that guy DID not deserve having his daughter suffer like that. I think she's still alive but he had a bit of a breakdown from the experience, understandably so. She's tough though to still live through that.

edited 14th Feb '14 11:55:08 PM by Vertigo_High

Dementia.

If I lose my mind, I may as well not live on anymore because it's all I consider important about myself.

When you spent the first third of your life over-eating, drinking to excess, and smoking...let's just say, heart disease creeps up the list of frightening shit. I regret nothing.

As to the scariest diseases...prions are some nasty motherfuckers. And the ebola virus is a good reason to avoid Africa forever.

Ebola risk is ridiculously overblown. Avoiding the entire continent because of it alone is more than a tad silly.

That is one horny rabbit.

I'd personally go with more incapatitating or more fatal disease, particular that involving the mind, myself.

Ebola is nasty, but compared to the stuff the Russians got up to in Biopreparat, Ken Alibek's old stomping ground, it's pretty tame.

Look up ebolapox. Which is exactly as it sounds, a chimera comprised of both Ebola and smallpox. If that stuff ever gets out of the labs in the former Soviet Union where they made it, we be pretty much screwed as a species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopreparat is a useful starting point.

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Basically the shope papilloma virus except it can affect humans.

Ever wonder what it would be like to have your extremities swell to five times their size and sprout, for lack of a better term, two-foot horns? No?

edited 17th Feb '14 7:19:10 AM by Midna

Apparently, there's a disease that turns your muscles, tendons, nerves, etc. into bone. Looked real painful.

Also, anything relating to forgetting stuff, like Alzhiemers and whatnot. Imaging just forgetting everything you've lived through. Fuck that noise.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

edited 17th Feb '14 12:44:30 PM by Midna

Look up some of the pics surrounding asbestos related diseases like Mesothelioma. Don't plan on eating afterwards.

In the Body Horror department it's hard to beat Teratoma. Teratomas are like tumors, except you are born with them; and, to quote That Other Wiki: "Teratomas have been reported to contain hair, teeth, bone and, very rarely, more complex organs or processes such as eyes, torso, and hands, feet, or other limbs. Usually, however, a teratoma will contain no organs but rather one or more tissues normally found in organs such as the brain, thyroid, liver, and lung. Sometimes, the teratoma has within its capsule one or more fluid-filled cysts; when a large cyst occurs, there is a potential for the teratoma to produce a structure within the cyst that resembles a fetus."

edited 18th Feb '14 3:52:31 AM by Druplesnubb

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva. I personally think it's more cool than scary, but YMMV.

Many foodborne illnesses. It doesn't help that I have to do a PowerPoint about botulism for my culinary arts class.

Rabies. It's list of symptoms are long and varied. Extreme aggression,foaming at the mouth, having trouble breathing. Also the virus from Quarantine is inspired by it.

edited 20th Feb '14 10:40:50 AM by Djanchorhead

Funny you should mention that... they found a rabid bat at our school recently. Well, a dead rabid bat. Someone's had to have shots alredy.

#16

I was going to mention that. What a horrible disease. I had the misfortune of finding out about it when I was 12 by reading a news story about a little girl who had contracted it. Took me days to get over the horror that something like that actually exists. Just to make it worse, I was listening to "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" while I read it, and now I can't hear that song without thinking of that girl.

And come to think of it, that was seven years ago... She's probably dead by now. Great, I just made myself sad all over again.

...I read "Explosivo" and "foodborne illnesses" and thought, "explosive diarrhoea". Which is more undignified than scary, though. (You can kill me now. I'm sorry.)