• Question: Which disease harms the body the most and is their any effective cure to it?

    Asked by 96ishaque69 to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 11 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      It is hard to say which disease harms the body the most. I could pick one of the flesh-eating bacteria, which are really nasty but can be cured with surgery and antibiotics. On the other hand, things like heart-attacks could be seen as the most harmful, because they can kill quickly and stop all bodily functions, and it doesn’t get much more harmful than that.

    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Hi @96ishaque69
      One condition that can be very harmful is cancer. Even though it tends to start in one place, e.g. the skin or brain, if it isn’t picked up quickly and treated it can spread. When cancer spreads it can harm other areas in the body. Once it has spread it is more tricky to treat. That’s why it is so important to pick up cancer early or even use genetic testing to work out who is at risk of developing it in the future. I worked with families in the NHS who had lots of cancer in their relatives. We were able to do genetic testing to work out who was likely to get it and who wasn’t. This was very helpful at picking up people before they got ill and then you could look after them closely to make sure they didn’t get ill.

    • Photo: Chris Cole

      Chris Cole answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      For me, the most frightening disease is a virus called Ebola. It kills about 80% of people who catch it within a few days. There’s no cure.

      Fortunately it’s not very contagious and is limited to small pockets in central Africa.

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