Earlier we talked about the history of computer viruses, as well as the first epidemics. But in general, these mass infections occurred at a time when ordinary users did not think about the concept of computer security, and not everyone installed antiviruses, and in terms of their capabilities they were very far from modern ones. In this article we will talk about malware that flourished already in those days when antiviruses were an integral part of the system, and yet they often did not help.
After the pandemic caused by Chernobyl, the popularity of antiviruses has grown significantly. But, as I said above, in terms of their capabilities they were far from modern ones. Many Internet users already had mailboxes back then, and everyone was used to spam. But imagine that you receive a letter from your friend with the following content: “Here is that document you asked for...don"t show anyone else” (“Here is the document you asked...don’t show it to anyone”), and a regular Word file was attached to this letter. Thinking that a text file certainly couldn’t be dangerous (especially since a friend had sent it), the user opened it - and then, as they say, it was a matter of technique, because under a regular A Word file can hide almost any code.
Fortunately, even in this not so distant time (the virus was written in 1999), no one thought about profit, and the only thing the virus did was simply forward itself to 50 contacts in Outlook on an infected PC. But this was enough to quickly shut down Microsoft’s mail servers, and, as a result, in order to somehow delay the spread of the virus, large corporations were forced to turn off their e-mail servers, which, of course, affected the efficiency of employees.
The only thing that the creator of the virus did not think about was that it could be easily identified - by going down the contact lists of various users, you can bring the chain back to the original source. The FBI did this quite easily - it turned out that the virus was launched on the Internet from the address of the AOL online service, which belonged to 30-year-old David Smith. He did not deny it and began to cooperate with the investigation, but was still eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of $5,000 - quite a bit, considering that he was accused of causing damage worth $80 million, and taking into account the lost profits losses of large companies amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In total, at the peak of infection, the virus “settled” on about 15-20% of all business PCs in the world, and antivirus developers learned the lesson that viruses can hide not only under executable files, but also under any others, so you need to analyze their code “from the inside.”
Perhaps this was the first widespread virus that was written to purposefully damage files. Moreover, its creators, two young Filipino programmers, Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman, did not even come up with something new - they simply used the idea of the Melissa virus, but changed it slightly.
Of course, even then antiviruses scanned all mail attachments, but, firstly, not everyone still had antiviruses, and, secondly, the virus did not send itself to 50 contacts in Outlook, like Melissa, but to everyone at once, which seriously expanded coverage. In addition, the antivirus was often triggered randomly, so users sometimes ignored it.
The creators of the loving virus decided to take advantage of this - it was also distributed as an attachment in a letter with simple text like “check the attached file,” which was called LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs. I think some have already understood what’s going on - by default, Windows hides the extension for registered file types, so for users the file looked like LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT - that is, like a harmless text file. And even if the antivirus “swears” at it, users often still run it - after all, a text file can’t be dangerous?
The result was predictable, because in fact it was a script written in VBScript. And if the Melissa Word file only paralyzed mail servers, then this script also searched the disk and replaced all files with the most popular resolutions (JPG, MP3, DOC, etc.), thereby destroying often important user information .
Taking into account the fact that the virus was a script that could be easily changed, in total more than 20 different versions of it were discovered, and some were engaged in completely different sabotage - they did not destroy files, but sent certain of them to the creator of the script, which led to leaks of confidential information. information.
As a result, about 50 million computers were infected - about 10% of their total number. The damage, according to various sources, ranged from 5 to 15 billion dollars: yes, several orders of magnitude more than from Melissa, because users lost not only their time, but also their data. But the creators of the virus... escaped with a slight fright: Philippine laws of that time did not provide for liability for cybercrimes, so in the end Reonel and Onel were released. By the way, the hole in the legislation was corrected very quickly - just 2 months after the start of the epidemic.
Perhaps the vast majority of previous virus attacks were based not on system vulnerabilities, but on the inattention and curiosity of users. But, of course, there were many security holes then (and even now), and it was only a matter of time before they were exploited.
And the first such mass worm was Code Red, launched into the network on July 19, 2001. He attacked computers running the Microsoft IIS web server using a fairly common vulnerability called a buffer overflow. Moreover, he used it as trivially as possible - he constantly entered N until the server froze, after which he introduced malicious code. Moreover, what is most interesting is that Microsoft knew about this vulnerability, and back in June they released an update that eliminates it - but, of course, they did not install it all.
The virus itself seemed to work clumsily: it simply replaced all the data on the pages of the infected site with the following phrase:
HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!
Of course, taking into account the fact that in the vast majority of cases the sites had backup copies, the admins simply installed a patch and restored a copy of the site, so the losses were small. But later, when analyzing the worm's code, it was discovered that it not only displayed the funny text above, but also 20-27 days after infection, the server was supposed to launch a DDOS attack on several IP addresses, one of which belonged to the White House.
Moreover, after analysis, it was clear that the virus was written rather crookedly: for example, it did not even check which server it got to, and whether there was a vulnerable copy of IIS on it - moreover, even in the logs of Apache servers attempts were found to use a buffer overflow . The virus did not spread very well either - just through random IP addresses.
As a result, the virus was able to infect 400,000 servers and caused about 2.5 billion dollars in losses - quite significant, while its creators were never found. But the place where the epidemic began was discovered - Makati City in the Philippines (yes, there again). Because of this, the name of the virus was invented by the experts who studied it - at that time the drink Code Red Mountain Dew was popular, plus the virus displayed the phrase “hacked by the Chinese” - an association with “red” communist China - hence the name “Code Red” suited the virus perfectly.
SQL Slammer
The case when the wrong timing saved the world from another pandemic: had the attack begun not on Saturday, January 25, 2003, but two days later, on Monday, the damage from it would have been much greater. But even on Saturday, the virus was able to infect over 75,000 PCs in just 10 minutes, using the same vulnerability - a buffer overflow, but now in Microsoft SQL Server.
The worm itself weighed only 376 bytes and fit into one UDP packet, which allowed it to spread very quickly. The principle was simple - there was a router with SQL Server, it became infected and joined the “botnet”. In fact, the virus itself did not contain any malicious code - the routers “drowned” themselves: all routers are designed in such a way that if the flow of traffic on them is very large, then they delay it for processing, thereby sharply reducing throughput.
Moreover, if after some time the problem with increased traffic is not solved, the router reboots and restores the routing table with other routers. Therefore, after some time, most of the networks were busy restoring routing, which almost completely paralyzed user traffic.
The results were disastrous: about 500,000 servers were down, there was no Internet in South Korea for 12 hours, and as for solving the problem... yes, Microsoft released a patch six months (!) before the attack, but, as practice has shown, experience I didn't teach anyone anything with Code Red.
Blaster, Sobig.F, Bagle, MyDoom
The peak of viruses spreading in email attachments occurred in 2002-2005. And although everyone was warned not to thoughtlessly open attachments from unknown (or even known) recipients, in the end, as usual, “hedgehogs cried, injected themselves and continued to eat cacti”: the damage from such viruses amounted to billions of dollars, millions of PCs were infected, and at some points, for every 10 emails sent, there was one with a virus.
Moreover, viruses often did not differ in originality - perhaps only Sobig.F from 2003 was somewhat funny: several messages were found in the body of the virus: “I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!” (“I just want to say I LOVE YOU SON”), and “billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!” (“Bill Gates, why are you making this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!”). In addition, this virus was supposed to carry out a DDOS attack on the website windowsupdate.com (Windows updates are sent from it), but by that time it was already neutralized. Other viruses differed little in their operating principle from each other, so there is no point in considering them separately.
That’s all for today, and in the final part we will talk about modern virus attacks that were and are carried out not by a couple of “pogromists”, but by groups of professionals.
Good day, friends! As you know, security and protection of your electronic friend are pressing issues for a huge number of users. Cunning worms and insidious Trojans are constantly roaming the Internet, trying to sneak through loopholes on your PC and wreak havoc on your hard drive. Today I invite us all to remember the most famous computer viruses of our time.
Eight new-age malware
First, let's make a short list of all these malicious utilities, and then I will talk about each in more detail, including the newest and most tricky ones. So here are these scoundrels:
- ILOVEYOU – 2000;
- Nimda - 2001;
- SQL Slammer/Sapphire – 2003;
- Sasser - 2004;
- Storm Trojan - 2007;
- Conficker - 2008;
- Wannacry – 2017;
- Petya – 2017.
I LOVE YOU
This virus is considered the pioneer of large-scale computer infections around the world. It began spreading on the night of May 5 in the form of emails with a malicious script attached.
When he opened this letter, he immediately began sending himself using the Microsoft Outlook contact sheet (at that time this program was considered the height of perfection for sending emails). Over the next few days, it infected about 3 million PCs around the world and overwrote files on them. The damage from its destructive activities amounted to approximately 1015 billion dollars. For this, the ILOVEYOU virus even entered the Guinness Book of Records, receiving the “honorary” title of the most destructive virus.
Nimda
This malware spread in a matter of minutes. Its scripts were written in such a way that it affected not only the computers of ordinary users, but even servers running Windows NT and 2000, which at that time had quite powerful protection. It penetrated the hard drive through email distribution. The targets of infection were Internet portals that did not have the necessary protection system.
This worm was attributed to the authorship of Al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). However, no evidence was received. According to rough estimates, the damage from the virus amounted to more than $50 million, and then networks of banks, hotels, federal courts, and so on collapsed.
SQL Slammer/Sapphire
A notable feature of this worm is its small size. It weighed only 376 bytes, but these bytes infected about 75 thousand computers in the world in 10 minutes. As a result of his attack, emergency networks were disabled, many hosts crashed, and access to the Internet disappeared at a nuclear power plant in Ohio, USA.
Sasser
The epidemic of this worm began at the end of April 2004. Within a few days, the worm managed to infect about 250,000 computers around the world. After infecting one device, the worm gained access to the Internet and looked for computers with a vulnerability through which it could get there. The virus did not cause any particular harm or mischief - it just sent the computer into an endless cycle of reboots.
Interestingly, its author was not a bearded hacker with a powerful desktop, but an ordinary 17-year-old teenager from Germany with a home PC. He was identified quickly enough, after which he was sentenced to probation. It is difficult to explain why, because his creation sabotaged the work of airlines, hospitals, post offices, the British coast guard and many other social institutions and caused damage of 18 billion dollars.
Storm Trojan
8% of infected computers out of the total number around the world - this is the result of the march of the Storm Trojan virus across the planet. The principle of its operation is very common - it involved infecting a PC and connecting to the so-called botnet. In it, a huge number of computers were connected into one network, without the knowledge of the owners, which served the only purpose - massive attacks on powerful servers. It was quite difficult to neutralize him, since he independently changed his code every 10 minutes.
Conficker
The Conficker worm exploited operating system vulnerabilities and disabled many services, including security. It is considered the “progenitor” of malicious programs that are distributed via USB drives. In them, he created the autorun.inf file, which I'm sure many of us have seen.
By the way, you can still find a type of virus that hides files on storage media and replaces them with its own shortcuts. I have already described how to restore visibility to such files in the article.
Its purpose is the same as the previous one - uniting infected PCs into a common botnet. In this way, he was able to “subjugate” a huge number of machines and bring down the networks of not only ordinary companies, but also the defense ministries of Germany, France and the UK. According to the most conservative estimates, it caused damage in the amount of $9 billion.
Wannacry
Today, only those who don’t surf the Internet or watch TV have never heard of Wannacry. It belongs to the Trojan Winlock family of viruses. This cutting-edge, cunning and incredibly clever network worm, also known as ransomware, works as follows: it encrypts the vast majority of files stored on the hard drive, after which it locks the computer and displays a ransom window. It was proposed to transfer the money in the form of bitcoins, a modern cryptocurrency. The worm was able to infect about 500,000 people in 150 countries, with India, Ukraine and Russia being the most affected.
It is known that the hackers were able to obtain $42,000 from their victims. The attack was stopped by accident. It was discovered that before starting to encrypt files, the malware accesses a non-existent domain, and if it does not exist, the process begins. It was a small matter - the domain was registered, and the procession of Wannacry stopped. So the world was saved from the computer apocalypse. At the moment, the damage is estimated at $1 billion. The virus has disrupted the work of many banks, transport companies, and dispatch services. If not for the miraculous rescue, millions of people could have gone bankrupt or died in train and plane accidents. According to experts, this was a significant case. Now it has become clear to everyone how dangerous modern unusually complex and carefully designed fraudulent schemes are.
They began to fight information crime very seriously, including in our country. However, a month later in June 2017, the Petya virus appeared.
Petya
The Petya ransomware virus is a trend in June 2017. It is very similar to Wannacry, but there is a significant difference - it does not encrypt individual files, but locks the entire hard drive. Its creators relied on fans of unlicensed software, because not every user follows official Microsoft updates, and in one of them a patch was released that closed the hole through which Petya is now getting onto the PC.
It is distributed through attachments in emails. If the user runs this file, the computer will reboot and a simulated disk check for errors will appear on the screen. After this, a red skull will appear in front of your eyes across the entire monitor. To decrypt the hard drive you need to transfer a certain amount in bitcoins.
Experts believe that the more technology develops, the more people will want to use it to deceive their neighbors. This is the harsh reality of the 21st century.
According to statistics, in 2016, about 650,000,000 rubles were stolen from Russians’ bank cards. This is 15% less than in 2015. Sociologists believe that the residents of our country have seen through the majority. However, new, previously unknown ways to lure money out of your wallet appear almost every day.
This is the list of the most famous and dangerous viruses that infect people’s electronic assistants in the 21st century. If you were interested in reading about them, share the article on social networks so that your friends also know about this danger. Also don't forget to subscribe to blog updates!
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There are a huge variety of computer viruses. They can disguise themselves as programs, files, and be called worms, Trojans, or duplicates. However, most of them have a common goal - to cause as much trouble as possible to the user and his computer. Every now and then, hackers “delight” the public with new products that can have significant destructive power.
What viruses of the first decade are recognized by the international IT community as one of the most dangerous?
Letter of happiness or “Loveletter”
In 2000, users around the world began to receive unexpected declarations of love. The first victims of the attackers were office workers. Having received a mysterious letter in the mail with the confession “I LoveYou” and some kind of attachment, many of them, without hesitation for a long time, opened the file and released the monster to freedom. The danger of the virus was that it not only infected the computer, but learned all the passwords. Having managed to spread throughout the world, it managed to infect more than 10% of PCs. The damage caused then amounted to more than 5 billion US dollars.
red worm
The virus began its harmful spread around the world in the summer of 2001, presumably from the Philippines. Initially, CodeRed was aimed at the weakness of Microsoft IIS servers. Its distinctive feature was that it appeared some time after the manufacturer updated the software of certain programs.
CodeRed's goal was to cause the greatest damage to government agencies, and its main target was the White House. About 20 days after it began spreading, the virus attacked several IP addresses, including the US government website. However, the specialists responsible for programming the software took the threat more than seriously and successfully prevented the attack by promptly changing addresses.
In less than a week of its spread, the virus infected more than 400,000 computers. The total damage caused by CodeRed is over 2.5 billion US dollars.
"Administrator"
In 2001, users experienced the harmful effects of another desktop virus - Nimda (reverse spelling of the word admin). It was then assumed that he was associated with al-Qaeda. Rumors were spread based on the September 11 terrorist attacks. However, later they were not confirmed.
Once on the computer, the virus gave itself administrator rights and began destructive activities: it disrupted the design of sites, found out codes, blocked access to hosts, etc. It spread in several ways, but most often after the user visited an infected resource. The rate of infection was so high that just over 20 minutes after its launch, Nimda was recognized as the most widespread virus on the Internet. Through his fault, many large networks collapsed: banks, courts and other structures.
The cost of cleaning up the virus amounted to $500 million.
SQL Slammer
In 2003, this virus could have caused a colossal environmental disaster. Taking up only 376 bytes, the virus infected servers running Microsoft SQL Server 2000. SQL Slammer had powerful destructive power: it blocked access to the Internet for emergency services and call centers. Due to his fault, about 13,000 Bank of America ATMs were disconnected. He left almost all of South Korea without the Internet.
But the worst thing is that he had the power to turn off access to the management of a nuclear power plant in Ohio. Within the first 10 minutes of its spread, the virus infected more than 76,000 servers. The damage from its harmful effects is estimated at more than a billion US dollars.
Cabir
In 2004, the world of programming and IT realized that not only PCs, but also mobile devices could be hostage to a malicious virus. The Cabir network worm spread via the Bluetooth protocol, infecting mobile phones running the Symbian OS. Interestingly, it got its name in honor of Elena Kabirova, one of the Kaspersky Lab employees, who quite by chance appeared in the room when her colleagues were discussing the world’s first “smartphone” virus.
It is worth noting that the original version of Cabir did not cause significant damage. Except that it caused a very rapid (at that time) battery discharge, which was provoked by the Bluetooth module constantly in search mode. It was possible to protect against the virus by disabling the module, making it invisible, or not accepting unknown files coming from outside.
How to protect yourself from a computer virus
Of course, this is not a complete list of viruses that once attacked desktop and mobile devices around the world. It is likely that even now some hacker is working on creating a new, previously unseen “monster”. It is worth knowing and following the basic rules that will help protect your computer or smartphone from a dangerous attack.
- Install a modern, effective anti-virus program (preferably a licensed one).
- Before installation, check all new programs and files for viruses.
- Do not follow links from dubious sources, letters, messages on social networks.
- Do not open files sent by strangers.
- Don’t be fooled by calls to install some software for free on dubious resources.
- Do not pay attention to threats about violating the laws of the Russian Federation or other countries (especially if you are sure that you have not done anything illegal).
- Use a firewall or firewall.
- Make multiple accounts. One - with administrator rights, use only if necessary. The second with limited rights is for solving daily problems.
- Do not allow strangers to access your computer. They can cause harm without even realizing it.
- Don't be lazy and don't forget to update your OS and antivirus.
How do you protect yourself from computer viruses?
Viruses are viruses, but you also need to write normal software: profession “”.
Despite modern technologies, super-medicines and the powerful development of medicine, new diseases do not cease to attack earthlings. What diseases are destroying our health at the beginning of the 21st century?
Non-infectious
Among the diseases that a person diligently provides for himself with an incorrect lifestyle, the most destructive is obesity. You say - is this a modern problem? There have always been fat people. Partly yes, but today doctors note that nutritional obesity, passed down in the family from generation to generation along with eating habits, began in the third or fourth generation to modify the bone structure of a person from birth. In other words, families of overweight people are more likely to produce children with a predisposition to abnormal skeletal formation. Outwardly, the deviation may not be noticeable, but in the future there is a risk of increased bone fragility, improper development of the pelvis in women and the appearance of problems with the spine.
Combating nutritional obesity is not so easy. You definitely can’t do without medical help. Treatment consists of dietary nutrition, which excludes both overeating and starvation. Contrary to popular belief, fat people can and even need to eat. The only question is the choice of products. You need to completely give up everything refined and canned and include more fruits and vegetables in your diet.
Today, a huge number of surgical methods for treating obesity have appeared, but, unfortunately, most of them do not guarantee a permanent result.
An increasing number of earthlings are suffering from severe forms of diabetes mellitus, and over the past 10 years this disease has become younger by an average of 15 years (if previously the first manifestations of non-insulin-dependent diabetes were detected after 42 years, now - after 27), and the reason for this is still the same nutritional disorders, mainly overeating and unbalanced diet, its bias towards simple carbohydrates and trans fats. A separate category has emerged, called by American researchers “children of soda” - teenagers from 11 to 15 years old (a period of hormonal changes) who quickly develop diabetes precisely because of their love for sweet drinks.
Another rather unexpected disease of the 21st century is the so-called transient alopecia, that is, temporary baldness. Scientists have isolated a gene that leads to this generally safe, but extremely unpleasant phenomenon, and realized that it has begun to occur in people many times more often than it was in the last century. So far, scientists suggest that the anomaly forms after a person has suffered, perhaps at a young age, mononucleosis - a disease similar to a sore throat, characterized by a rather severe course. This disease damages the gene responsible for the condition and normal growth of hair on the head, and can manifest itself both in those suffering from mononucleosis and in their offspring.
Infectious
Surprisingly, the more pharmaceuticals and virology develop, the more infectious diseases attack humanity. Since the beginning of the 21st century, several pandemics have appeared, and doctors have frozen in horror, expecting new modifications of dangerous microorganisms. Let us recall the most famous infections.
At the very beginning of the new millennium, the SARS infection, better known as “atypical pneumonia,” hit the planet. The disease began its march from China. It claimed the lives of several thousand people around the world, but scientists are still in deep bewilderment: what was it? The virus that caused the disease did not have any special features, but a simple acute respiratory viral infection developed into pneumonia more often and faster than usual. Some people still believe that SARS and the panic around this disease were initiated by a number of large pharmaceutical companies - in any case, the question of which genotype of the virus causes SARS and how to deal with it remains open.
Just a year later, “animal flu” began - first bird flu, then swine flu. Bird flu (H5N1) was first diagnosed in 2003 to a family flying from Hong Kong to Hanoi. During the study, it turned out that the virus was transmitted to people from sick chickens. A person can infect another person with this virus - previously it was assumed that only sick birds were dangerous. It turned out that the bird flu virus is especially dangerous for children under the age of 6 years (the most deaths were in this age category). The vaccine, created within several months after the virus was isolated, turned out to be not very effective: vaccinated people, alas, continued to get infected... Nevertheless, bird flu in humans disappeared - after its epidemic ended in birds...
A year ago, the planet was attacked by swine flu (A/H1N1), a severe respiratory viral disease with high mortality rates and severe complications. WHO recommends getting vaccinated, although it honestly warns that vaccination does not guarantee anything. Unless, in case of infection with swine flu, there will be a chance to avoid complications and, in general, it will be easier to endure the infection. In addition, virologists do not rule out new genotypes of the virus that can affect a weakened immune system.
In addition to respiratory viral infections, in the last ten years, doctors have been able to discover the causative agents of a number of diseases. In particular, it turned out that many more cancers, which were previously considered non-infectious, are viral or bacterial in nature. For example, it was possible to identify the pathogen that causes nasopharyngeal cancer.
In the last couple of years, they have begun to pay much more attention to such seemingly middle-aged infections as tuberculosis, cholera and smallpox: for unknown reasons, microbiologists are discovering completely new strains of these infections and do not yet know how to deal with them. It is possible that in 2-3 years there will be a need for a total new vaccination against these diseases.
Nervous and mental
The development of science and technology, on the one hand, has simplified human life, but on the other hand, it has endowed him with ailments that are quite difficult to combat.
The most important problem that neurologists in developed countries face today is damage to the nervous system caused by chronic sleep deficiency. Research conducted by scientists at the University of Toronto has shown that humanity has never slept as little as in the first decade of this century.
Sleep deficiency, accumulating, leads to such seemingly subtle consequences as infertility (both in women and men), proliferation of connective tissue, chronic rhinitis, as well as schizophrenia. The fact is that sleep is the only opportunity for the body to turn on the regeneration processes of all tissues, and a certain amount of time is needed to complete regeneration - usually at least 7-9 hours a day. Even for an adult. But the rhythm of life is often not combined with this physiological need...
More and more people today are faced with insomnia. As a rule, this is due to a violation of the simple rules of getting ready for bed. For example, experts advise taking a bath (preferably with the addition of aromatic oils: lavender, rose) before going to bed.
About 20 years ago, doctors started talking about chronic fatigue syndrome, the main symptoms of which were muscle pain, sleep disturbances, and weight loss. With this disease, the body lacks oxygen, metabolism is disrupted, which leads to slagging in the body. A long vacation does not guarantee a quick recovery. You need to radically change your lifestyle: go to bed at a certain time, walk for about an hour a day (so that your heart rate is 110-120 beats per minute), and also undergo a course of relaxation procedures once a month.
Psychiatrists in our time generally have a lot of freedom. The development and accessibility of the Internet has led to mental disorders associated with split personality and anomalies of self-perception. Impressionable people (especially teenagers and the elderly) who spend a lot of time in the virtual space, over time, cease to feel the boundary between their real selves and their online selves. And this is not at all as harmless as it may seem: having become a “half-cyborg”, a person can gradually begin to ignore the basic needs of his real body - for food, emptying the bladder or bowels, for example, in sleep. In the USA, more than ten cases of young people dying in front of a monitor are already known: all of them were gamers who loved online games, and such things as food and sleep became unimportant for them...
Yulia MAKAROVA, Telenedelya LLC, Moscow (especially for ZN)
Expert opinion
Rinat Ibragimbekov, Ph.D., therapist:
Alas, I have to admit that every year at least one and a half hundred new diagnoses appear, with which it is not yet very clear what to do. The fact is that, for example, some viruses attack a person slowly and indirectly; they can be classified as conditionally dangerous. But understanding this requires years of research. Dangerous infections - such as plague, smallpox, leprosy, typhoid - have long been a rare phenomenon, from which either vaccines or effective quarantine programs were saved, but now we increasingly have to deal with dangerous modified modifications of pathogens. Nevertheless, the average life expectancy of an inhabitant of the Earth is growing - which means that there is no reason for serious panic yet.
On a note
54 million adults in America are obese. Men face the problem twice as often as women. Scientists attribute this to the characteristics of the body: by the age of 35, muscle tissue in men begins to be replaced by fat.
5% of the population of Finland and 8% of the population of Japan suffer from depression. This is explained by the fact that the inhabitants of these countries eat a lot of seafood. The omega-3 fatty acids they contain help cope with the blues.
On average, office workers spend 40 hours a week in a sedentary position. This leads to varicose veins, thrombosis, osteochondrosis and many other diseases. Doctors advise sedentary workers to stretch their legs at least once an hour.
In the twenty-first century, the list of the most dangerous diseases has been supplemented with several more. And today the TOP 10 diseases of the 21st century include the following:
10th place: AIDS and HIV
The disease is quite young, but it has already ruined the lives of millions of people. Today, AIDS is considered a slow infectious disease, since more than 15 years can pass from infection to biological death. This disease is characterized by four stages:
The first stage resembles an acute infection and manifests itself as a regular virus (fever, cough, rash, etc.).
The second stage is asymptomatic, when there are no manifestations of the disease.
The third stage occurs after 3-5 years, immunity is significantly reduced.
The fourth stage is the complete destruction of the immune system.
According to statistics, approximately 36 million people have AIDS, while about half do not even know it.
9th place: cancer
Cancer is a malignant neoplasm in which pathological tissue growth occurs. The most common cancers are breast cancer and lung cancer. It is believed that cancer is directly related to a disorder in the genetic apparatus of cells. Which in turn is related to the environmental situation, carcinogens in food and water, and so on.
8th place: tuberculosis
The bacillus that provokes the development of tuberculosis is found almost everywhere. The source of infection can be a sick person who secretes tuberculosis bacilli along with sputum. If it enters the body of a healthy person, the infection may not appear for a long time. But when a person’s immunity decreases, for example, due to poor nutrition or unfavorable living conditions, tuberculosis develops.
7th place: malaria
Malaria is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, of which there are about fifty species. It should be noted that mosquitoes are only carriers of the disease. In the human body, malaria develops in just ten days. Further symptoms appear in the form of pain in the liver, anemia, destruction of red blood cells occurs, the process is accompanied by high body temperature. Approximately one third of malaria cases are fatal.
6th place: “mad cow disease”
This disease is also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It has claimed the lives of several million people over the past few decades. The disease is transmitted by prions, that is, abnormal proteins that affect the spinal cord and brain. A person can become infected even if he eats a tiny piece of contaminated meat; the infection can also spread through the saliva of an animal, bats, or from mother to child. The first symptom is itching and burning, after which a depressed state appears, fear of death, nightmares in sleep, apathy, dilated pupils, rapid pulse, thirst.
5th place: polio
Polio is considered a childhood disease because it can affect children under seven years of age. During the first 14 days, the disease occurs in a latent form, after which symptoms such as fever, sore throat, vomiting, nausea, muscle weakness, partial or complete paralysis appear. If therapy fails, there is a high probability that the child will remain paralyzed. It is believed that this disease has not occurred for twenty years. But, unfortunately, in Tajikistan alone this year, 300 sick children were recorded, fifteen of whom did not survive.
4th place: “Bird Flu”
The carriers of this virus are birds, hence the name. Human infection occurs through airborne droplets through consumption of poultry meat infected with the virus, as well as eggs. The symptoms are similar to regular flu, but after a while atypical pneumonia occurs, which is fatal. There are currently no medications for bird flu.
3rd place: lupus erythematosus
In patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, internal organs are damaged, which is accompanied by a rash on the cheeks and bridge of the nose. The main symptoms of the disease are: joint pain, spots on the head, face, arms, ears, chest. Patients complain of sensitivity to sunlight, weakness, and anxiety. Doctors do not know why the disease occurs. Presumably, the development of lupus erythematosus is associated with a disruption of the immune system.
2nd place: cholera
Vibrio cholera is transmitted from person to person through food and water. The development of the disease occurs in the small intestine, which leads to diarrhea, pain around the navel, pain in the kidneys, and vomiting. Cholera is fatal in most cases. Most often, cholera outbreaks occur in Africa and America.
1st place: Ebola fever
To date, this disease has claimed the lives of several thousand people. Fever can be carried by animals or by contact with the blood of a sick person or animal. The incubation period for fever lasts four to six days. At this time, patients experience severe headache, muscle pain, diarrhea, and later cough and acute chest pain. On days 6-7, hemorrhagic syndrome, nosebleeds, and uterine bleeding develop. After about two weeks, the patient dies from blood loss and shock.
