List of human disease case fatality rates
Human infectious diseases may be characterized by their case fatality rate. A CFR is the proportion of people diagnosed with a disease who die from the disease. The infection fatality rate is the proportion of people infected by a disease-causing agent, including asymptomatic and undiagnosed infections, who die from the disease; it cannot be higher than the CFR and is often much lower. Data are based on optimally treated patients and exclude isolated cases or minor outbreaks, unless otherwise indicated.
| Disease | Type | Treatment | CFR | IFR | Notes | Reference |
| Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies | Prion | Currently Incurable | 100% | Includes Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and all its variants, fatal familial insomnia, kuru, Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome and others. | ||
| African trypanosomiasis | Parasitic | Untreated | ~100% | |||
| Visceral leishmaniasis | Parasitic | Untreated | ~100% | |||
| Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, Naegleria fowleri | Amoeba | Untreated | ~100% | Amphotericin B has shown efficacy in the limited survivorship population. Around 7 documented survivors | ||
| Flu season, Seasonal Influenza | Viral | Largely unvaccinated, Treated | 0.1% | 0.025%-0.04% | Acquisition of an influenza vaccine or virus may also lessen the symptoms of a subsequent infection from other closely related subtypes or lineage strains. | ,, |
| Rabies | Viral | Untreated | ~100% | Preventable with vaccines down to ~0% CFR and treatable with PEP but, once the symptoms manifest, the CFR is near 100%. Around 16 documented survivors after symptom onset, all but 3 did not receive any Rabies treatment at any time before symptom onset. Of those 3, only 1 survived without the use of a therapeutic coma | ||
| Balamuthia | Amoeba | Opportunistic & Untreated | ~100% | 2 survivors, both have permanent brain damage. | ||
| Glanders, septicemic | Bacterial | Untreated | 95% | The rate drops significantly to >50% with treatment. | ||
| Smallpox Variola major – specifically the malignant or hemorrhagic type | Viral | Untreated | ~95% | The rate drops significantly to 10% with effective treatments. Eradicated. | ||
| Ebola virus disease – specifically EBOV | Viral | Unvaccinated & Untreated | % | Prognosis improved by early supportive treatments as seen in the West African epidemic and the Kivu outbreak. | ||
| AIDS/HIV infection | Viral | Untreated | % | Data are counted during the first 5 years of infection in developed countries. HIV is not lethal on its own but patients are usually killed by respiratory diseases, such as flu or pneumonia because of immunodeficiency caused by HIV virus. | ||
| Anthrax, specifically the pulmonary form | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | > 85% | Early treatments lower the CFR to 45% as seen in the 2001 AMERITHRAX letter attacks. Monoclonal antibodies could lower this further. | ||
| Macanine alphaherpesvirus 1 | Viral | Untreated | ~80% | Early treatment including aciclovir can improve prognosis. | ||
| Aspergillosis, invasive pulmonary form | Fungal | Opportunistic w/COPD, Tuberculosis and Immunocompromised | % | |||
| Smallpox, Variola major – in pregnant women | Viral | Unvaccinated | > 65% | |||
| Cryptococcal meningitis | Fungal | Co-infection with HIV | % | 6 month mortality is >=60% with fluconazole-based therapy and 40% with amphotericin-based therapy in research studies in low and middle income countries. | ||
| Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 | Viral | ~60% | ||||
| Bubonic plague | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | % | |||
| Tularemia, pneumonic | Bacterial | Untreated | ≤ 60% | |||
| Anthrax, gastrointestinal, intestinal type | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | > 50% | |||
| Marburg virus disease – all outbreaks combined | Viral | Untreated | % | 23% in 1967 when it was first identified and 90% in 2004-2005 when the worst outbreak of the disease occurred. Galidesivir has shown promise in treating Filoviridae | ||
| Plague, pneumonic | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | 50% | |||
| Tetanus, Generalized | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | 50% | CFR drops to % with effective treatment. | ||
| Baylisascariasis | Parasitic | ~40% | With occurrence of Neural Larva Migrans; early, aggressive treatment necessary for survival, but only 2 full recoveries from NLM ever documented | |||
| Plague, septicemic | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | % | |||
| Hantavirus infection | Viral | 36% | Ribavirin may be a drug for HPS and HFRS but its effectiveness remains unknown, still, spontaneous recovery is possible with supportive treatment. | |||
| Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome | Viral | 35% | Galidesivir has shown promise in treating Coronaviridae | |||
| Tularemia, typhoidal | Bacterial | Untreated | % | |||
| Eastern equine encephalitis virus | Viral | ~33% | ||||
| Anthrax, gastrointestinal, oropharyngeal type | Bacterial | % | ||||
| Tuberculosis, HIV Negative | Bacterial | Vaccine | 43% | Vaccines have been developed but have been frequently dismissed for having received controversial and improper testing on African populations. | ||
| Smallpox, Variola major | Viral | Unvaccinated | 30% | |||
| Varicella, in newborns | Viral | Untreated | ~30% | Where the mothers develop the disease between 5 days prior to, or 2 days after delivery. | ||
| Dengue haemorrhagic fever | Viral | Untreated | 26% | Dengue haemorrhagic fever is also known as severe dengue. | ||
| Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome | Viral | Untreated | ~21% | Galidesivir has shown promise in treating Bunyavirales | ||
| Leptospirosis | Bacterial | < % | ||||
| Legionellosis | Bacterial | ~15% | ||||
| Meningococcal disease | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | % | |||
| Typhoid fever | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | % | |||
| Severe acute respiratory syndrome | Viral | 11% | Galidesivir has shown promise in treating Coronaviridae | |||
| Intestinal capillariasis | Parasitic | Untreated | ~10% | |||
| Visceral leishmaniasis | Parasitic | ~10% | ||||
| Botulism | Bacterial toxin | Treated | < 10% | Untreated foodborne botulism is thought to be ~50% | ||
| Diphtheria, respiratory | Bacterial | Unvaccinated & Untreated | ~% | |||
| Yellow fever | Viral | Unvaccinated | 7.5% | |||
| Pertussis, infants in developing countries | Bacterial | Unvaccinated | ~3.7% | |||
| Smallpox, Variola major | Viral | Vaccinated | 3% | |||
| 1918 flu | Viral | Treated | > 2.5% | |||
| Angiostrongyliasis | Parasitic | ~2.4% | From Hawaiian cases. | |||
| Coronavirus disease 2019 | Viral | Unvaccinated & | ~% ' | ~% ' | Ongoing pandemic. Global, up to 26 May 2020. | |
| Measles, in developing countries | Viral | Unvaccinated | ~% | May reach % in some localities. | ||
| Cholera, in Africa | Bacterial | ~% | With proper treatment, may be less than 1%, while without treatment may reach 50% | |||
| Brucellosis | Bacterial | Untreated | ≤ 2% | |||
| Hepatitis A, adults > 50 years old | Viral | Unvaccinated | ~1.8% | |||
| Lassa fever | Viral | ~1% | 15% in hospitalized patients; higher in some epidemics. | |||
| Mumps encephalitis | Viral | Unvaccinated | ~1% | |||
| Pertussis, children in developing countries | Bacterial | Unvaccinated | ~1% | For children 1–4 years old. | ||
| Smallpox, Variola minor | Viral | Unvaccinated | 1% | |||
| Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis | Viral | < 1% | ||||
| Anthrax, cutaneous | Bacterial | < 1% | ||||
| Malaria | Parasitic | ~0.3% | ||||
| Hepatitis A | Viral | Unvaccinated | % | |||
| Polio | Viral | Without artificial breathing support | ~0.1%, varies by age: 2-5% for children and up to 15-30% for adults | 0.5% of all infected become paralysed. Of those, about % die. | ||
| Asian flu | Viral | ~0.1% | ||||
| Hong Kong flu | Viral | ~0.1% | ||||
| Influenza A, typical pandemics | Viral | < 0.1% | ||||
| Varicella, adults | Viral | Unvaccinated | 0.02% | |||
| Hand, foot and mouth disease, children < 5 years old | Viral | 0.01% | ||||
| Varicella, children | Viral | Unvaccinated | 0.001% |