• Question: what do you think is the worst deseas

    Asked by lshepherd12 to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 11 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by hobojoe.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Well right now I have got toothache and it is driving me nuts…

      The thing I really wouldn’t want is cancer of the oesophagus. There is very low chance of surviving and the treatments that they use mean that you have to be fed by a tube directly into the stomach, so you can never eat or drink normally again.

    • Photo: Rachel Dakin

      Rachel Dakin answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      This is a tough question, many diseases can be quite devastating.
      For me personally cancer is probably the worst. Particularly cancers that affect younger people where we don’t know the cause. The disease is horrible for the person suffering and also close family and friends around them.
      Degenerative diseases are also very nasty, to slowly loose the ability to walk, talk, remember most be really frightening.
      Lastly I’d say mental health problems are difficult, mostly because they are misunderstood. I hope that with more people being understanding and accepting (and a little more scientific research) mental health problems won’t be so difficult to cope with in the future.

      Sorry that feels like a sad answer. What do you think is the worst?

    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Obviously cancer is a big one, but I also think diseases that make you forget things and who you are, like dementia or alzheimer’s disease, would be awful; not just for you when you do remember and realise what’s happening, but for your family and friends too! It must be so sad when you don’t recognise them!!

      This sounds like a sad answer too! To make it happier, I also think getting some flesh eating bacteria disease would be disgusting!!!

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I think any disease that causes people to suffer for a long time is really sad, and it’s difficult to choose the worst one. I agree with Rachel that mental health problems don’t get the attention they deserve. Rare diseases where little is known about them must also be really scary.

      We are lucky that so much more is now known about medicine and vaccinations and treatments have improved so much. Looking back in time, I think the plague, known as the Black Death, was one of the most terrible diseases ever. It was one of the most deadly pandemics in human history and is estimated to have killed 75 million people and wiped out about half of Europe’s population! It must have been absolutely terrifying to live during this time.

      Luckily we have vaccinations against this disease now!

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