Since it was first discovered in 1976, strains of the Ebola virus have wreaked havoc throughout central Africa, particularly in the Congo area. But previous incidents have only affected a fraction of the people struck down by the outbreak of 2014, which has infected over 1,700 people and killed more than 900. Perhaps the most frightening thing about Ebola, other than its staggering mortality rate, is how very little we know about it.

102014 Outbreak

As of August 6, 2014, the World Health Organization claimed that 932 people had died of Ebola so far in the summer of 2014. In a world of billions, this number may seem statistically insignificant, but it is important to realize that tiny rural communities have been hit especially hard.

On August 5, a nurse in Lagos was the first Nigerian to die of the virus. This is particularly horrifying, as Lagos is the most populous city in Africa, densely packed with an estimated 21 million citizens. Nigeria is scrambling to contain the plague as new cases pop up left and right, but how successful they will be and how many will die remains unknown.

The 2014 outbreak seems to have spread to Guinea, with dozens of cases reported by the Ministry of Health by March 24, 2014. Within a span of months, it managed to cross borders, taking hold in the neighboring nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, leading the American CDC to issue a travel advisory against visiting afflicted countries.

9Arrival In America

When news of the 2014 Ebola outbreak first broke, those in the West listened warily but without great concern. After all, Ebola had sprung up intermittently for over 30 years without causing significant damage. But when it was announced that an infected American, Dr. Kent Brantly, would be transported back to the United States, panic ensued. Recognizing a juicy story, the media only made matters worse.

The 33-year-old doctor was transported from Liberia via air ambulance, arriving in the US on August 2, 2014. He was brought to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, which is outfitted with a sophisticated biocontainment patient care unit replete with ultraviolet lights and air filtration systems.

If this does not assuage your fears, experts claim that even if Ebola somehow did make its way out of the hospital and take root in the general population, its impact would be quite minimal. According to epidemiologist Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, “Sustained outbreaks would not occur in the US because cultural factors in the developing world that spread Ebola—such as intimate contact while family and friends are caring for the sick and during the preparation of bodies for burial—aren’t common in the developed world. Health authorities would also rapidly identify and isolate infected individuals.”

8Discovery

The first recorded outbreaks of Ebola occurred around the same time in 1976 in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Sudan. When people began dying of a mystery ailment, William Close, the personal physician of Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko, sent for a team of experts from Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. Their research focused on the village of Yambuku, where the first known case infected Mabalo Lokela, the headmaster of the village school, and quickly spread to other people in the village. The Belgian team decided to call the virus “Ebola” after the nearby Ebola River rather than stigmatize Yambuku.

Of course, it is likely that Ebola has infected people much further in the past. Some historians claim that Ebola was responsible for the Plague of Athens, which struck the Mediterranean during the Peloponnesian War in 430 B.C. According to the historian Thucydides, who himself contracted the disease but survived, the plague came to the sea-faring Athenian people from Africa. Evidence is circumstantial, but descriptions of the disease—including its prevalence among caregivers and symptoms like bleeding—do indicate that Ebola may have been the culprit.

7Porton Down Lab Accident

Conspiracy theorists love to spin tall tales of secret government research laboratories where deadly biological agents are cultivated and monsters are bred, but unlike many crackpot theories, this one contains a grain of truth. One such facility is the Centre for Applied Microbiology Research at Porton Down in England, where Ebola research is carried out. The level-four safety category laboratory is outfitted with a shower system to sterilize researchers before they exit and bulletproof glass to ensure the virus is kept securely under wraps. Should an accident happen, such as a tear in a suit or glove, an alarm will sound.

These protocols have been in place for decades, but when Ebola was first making the rounds in 1976, no one was sure exactly what dangers the virus posed. One researcher was accidentally infected at Porton Down on November 5, 1976 when he accidentally pricked his thumb with a syringe while working with laboratory animals. He became ill days later, providing the scientific world with his bodily fluids and much of their initial data about the virus. Luckily, the man survived.

6Sexual Transmission

The first 7–10 days after they begin showing symptoms is critical to the survival of Ebola patients. This is when most Ebola victims die, but if the body manufactures enough antibodies to fight off the virus, recovery is possible. Even after a clean blood test, though, Ebola can linger in strange ways, such as in the breast milk of lactating women. It also stays in semen for up to three months, as blood-borne antibodies don’t reach the testicles, so men who recover from Ebola are told to practice safe sex with condoms. Seminal fluid taken from the researcher from Porton Down contained the virus 61 days after his recovery.

Experts state that likelihood of Ebola spreading through sexual contact is minimal, particularly because those with high viral loads are in no condition to be amorous. A more likely, if infinitely more morbid, route of transmission is the African custom of washing corpses before burial. While Ebola thrives in living bodies, the virus has been found in the carcasses of apes that have been dead for several days.

5Effect On Wildlife

Viruses that quickly kill their victims naturally fill us with terror, but these are hardly the most insidious. Death within a manner of days is scary, but it is a terribly ineffective way to spread a disease. Fast-acting viruses like Ebola have historically burned themselves out quickly and close to their original source, whereas viruses that manifest slowly, such as HIV/AIDS, have spread across the globe.

Scientists believe that the reason Ebola keeps managing to pop up is that the virus has found a reservoir in the bat population of central and western Africa, in the same way that bats have become the vector for rabies in other parts of the world. The fruit bats, which are asymptomatic, transmit the disease to animals like the duiker (a small antelope) and primates like chimpanzees and gorillas.

In more economically advantaged parts of the world, these creatures would quickly perish, and the story would be over. However, in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, there is brisk trade in “bush meat,” wild animals that are hunted and sold when less palatable options are unavailable. Bush meat can be nearly any species, including bats, monkeys, and rats. While this sounds revolting to many of us, it is a far superior option to starving to death. It would have only taken a single infected animal being eaten to start the entire 2014 contagion.

4How Ebola Kills

Although the plague thus far appears localized, hospitals the world over are on high alert for the symptoms of Ebola. Unfortunately, symptoms of the early stages of the virus are so common that they are frequently ignored or misdiagnosed. The initial symptoms are quite like a cold or flu: headache, exhaustion, body aches, fever, sore throat, etc. Usually, these kinds of things might portend an ugly few days but are unlikely to send anyone scrambling for the nearest emergency room.

Unfortunately, things get far worse from there. The stomach soon revolts with vomiting, diarrhea, and wracking gastrointestinal pain, leaving the patient weakened for the next stage, in which the virus attacks all the systemic functions in the body. This is the most gory part, when the “hemorrhagic” element of the fever becomes apparent. Internal bleeding is common, the skin breaks out in blisters, and blood pours from the ears and eyes.

Death itself comes from various complications, including seizures, organ failure, and low blood pressure. There are several factors involved in determining the mortality rate, including the specific strain of the virus. The death rate of the 2014 outbreak hovered just above 60 percent as of August.

3Vaccine

In the past, Ebola spread from its animal hosts, typically infecting a handful of people in rural areas before fizzling out. While frightening and great fodder for thrillers like 1995’s Outbreak, whose plot revolves around a fictional form of the disease, it didn’t arouse a great deal of concern in the West. Developing a cure or vaccine has not historically been a financially viable option for pharmaceutical companies, since there would be no profit in it.

Despite the lack of commercialization potential, the world’s governments have been taking the disease seriously for years, sinking millions of dollars into research on how to stop Ebola if it were to be used as a biological weapon. Some experimental vaccines have shown great promise, including one that completely prevented rhesus monkeys from becoming infected with the Zaire strain, the one responsible for the 2014 outbreak. This vaccine is so effective that it even cured four monkeys that had already been infected. However, interesting private industry in making this a reality for the masses is an altogether different hurdle.

2Transmission

The precise mechanisms of the transmission of Ebola are unknown. Most experts agree that it can only be passed among humans through the exchange of bodily fluids, though there is some discussion that it may be spread aerobically from pigs to other species. At first glance, it seems easy to insulate oneself from such a virus, even for primary caregivers, by limiting the transfer of fluids.

Unfortunately, those who haven’t witnessed the ravages of Ebola firsthand are all too quick to underestimate exactly how much fluid leaks from the body of an Ebola patient, particularly in the latter stages, when blood can leak from every orifice. Combined with the fact that a single nurse or doctor is often charged with attending to dozens of patients at a time and the generally poor medical infrastructure of central and western Africa, it is no surprise that clinicians often find themselves sick.

1Treatment

In the past, treatment of the Ebola virus was practically nonexistent. Sufferers were only given palliative care, including liquids and electrolytes to keep them hydrated, painkillers like ibuprofen to bring down fevers, and antibiotics to temper any other complications and keep the immune system strong enough to focus on fighting the virus. The rest was largely up to the individual’s own constitution and which strain had sickened them.

However, the American victims, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, have received some experimental medicine. Brantly was treated early on with a blood transfusion from a 14-year-old boy he had treated who had recovered from the virus. They were also administered a serum pioneered by San Diego’s Mapp Biopharmaceutical derived from the antibodies of animals exposed to Ebola. The serum is supposed to spike the immune system and has reportedly proven effective in improving Brantly and Writebol’s condition. Other companies, such as Vancouver-based Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and Fujifilm’s US partner MediVector, have also been fast-tracked to develop Ebola treatments before it is too late.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

In celebration of Halloween this month, we shine a spotlight on one of Tinseltown’s oldest and scariest attractions: Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The palm tree-lined graveyard in the land of make-believe and broken dreams even shares a wall next to the legendary Paramount Studios. Since 1899, the lush 60-acre lot has served as the final resting place of silver screen queens, hunky heartthrobs, movie moguls, and rock and roll royalty. And one more thing: it’s haunted. 

The facility features the impressive (and spooky) Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum, and hosts music concerts, outdoor screening of film classics. The site also stages the largest annual Dia de Muertos event in North America. Additionally, a wide range of feature films and T.V. shows have shot there, including Californication, 90210, and American Greed. Fittingly, the indie band The Kills used the cemetery for their killer music video, “Doing It To Death”.

So while you’re still among the living, ditch the lame tour bus and head instead to where everyone’s dead. P.S.: admission is free. 

SEE ALSO: 10 Fascinating Graveyards You Must See

5 Whodunnit?

Glamour. Mystery. Drugs. Sex. The murder of famed silent film director and notorious playboy William Desmond Taylor had it all. On the morning of February 2, 1922, Taylor was found dead in his bungalow in the then-posh Westlake district of Los Angeles.

He had been shot in the back, most likely during the previous night, resulting in a massive investigation of yet another roaring ’20s sensational crime that dominated headlines for months.

A slew of Hollywood players would be questioned, including the director’s erstwhile girlfriend and cocaine addict, Mabel Normand. The popular leading actress, one of Taylor’s many conquests, had been the last person to see him alive on the evening of his murder. After an extensive interrogation, Los Angeles Police Department ruled her out as a suspect despite persistent accusations from scandal sheets of the day.

Unwanted attention also followed Mary Miles Minter. The blonde hair, blue-eyed nineteen-year-old ingenue had been in love with Taylor, and became another regular fixture in the frenzied tabloid fodder and the rumor mill. The same suspicion applied to her controlling stage mother, Charlotte Shelby, who just happened to own a .38-caliber pistol.

Ultimately, authorities were unable to establish any credible leads or produce the murder weapon and filed the case cold. Taylor’s family had his remains interred at Hollywood Forever, where over the years, several people associated with the scandal ended up. Then and now, they still ain’t talking.

But this isn’t where the story ends. Hardly. A muck-raking news reporter orchestrated the kind of publicity stunt that only could have occurred in La-La land. Florebel Muir, the Hollywood correspondent of the New York Daily News, attempted to out scoop her rivals with a half-baked plan involving Taylor’s butler, Henry Peavey. 

Three days before Taylor’s murder, Peavey had been arrested for “social vagrancy” — and Muir hoped she could extract a murder confession out of him. Spoiler Alert: it didn’t work. 

She paid a Chicago hoodlum named Al Weinshank to dress up as a ghost and hide near Taylor’s mausoleum at the cemetery. After luring Peavey to the gravesite, the two-bit spirit suddenly appeared in a white sheet and cried out, “I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor! You murdered me! Confess, Peavy!” 

Not surprisingly, the butler coughed up only a hearty laugh before giving the conspirators a piece of his mind. As for the ghost, Weinshank would later join the real dead after being gunned down in the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.^[1]

4 Hamlet Goes To Hollywood

With the arrival of sound motion pictures in the late 1920s, many actors suddenly found themselves out of work. The transition from silent films to “talkies” were especially challenging for those with a thick foreign accent or a weak voice. While some stars plunged into obscurity, Karl Dane took a much darker path.

Originally from Denmark, Rasmus Karl Therkelsen Gottlieb landed at Ellis Island, NY in 1916 with $25 in his pocket. He toiled as a factory worker, carpenter, and a mechanic before stumbling into show business — a stroke of luck that would change his life. He soon changed his name and traveled to California, where he began working in silent pictures.

His first big break came in 1924 with the movie, The Big Parade with John Gilbert and Renee Adoree. The film became a box office smash and thrust Dane into stardom. He then appeared with Valentino in The Son of The Sheik that was released shortly after the heartthrob’s death in 1926.

Dane began earning $1500 a week (over $20,000 today), starring in several comedies. But in a few years “talkies” would change everything — and by the early 1930s, he struggled to find even bit parts. Eventually, “The Great Dane” committed suicide, dying from a gunshot wound to the head.^[2] 

3 The Lady In Black

Over a century after first landing in Hollywood, the man known as Valentino remains firmly planted in pop culture as an enduring icon. When he died in 1926 at the age of 31, his legion of female fans mourned worldwide. One of his admirers, however, vowed never to leave his side and came to be known as “The Lady in Black”.

From humble origins as a taxi dancer after immigrating to America from Italy, Valentino captivated audiences with his smoldering sex appeal and gravitas, creating phenomena never seen before. Movies such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, and Blood and Sand firmly established the “Latin Lover” as an international sex symbol.?

While in New York to attend the premiere of his last film, he collapsed in his hotel on August 15, 1926. The great Valentino died eight days later from complications of a ruptured ulcer. An estimated crowd of 80,000 people lined the streets of Manhattan to pay their respects and nearly caused a riot. His body was then transported by train to California — and that’s when things got weird.

Recent financial troubles had left his estate in shambles despite earning $10,000-per-week (at a time when most people made around $2,000 a year). As a result, Valentino’s remains were laid to rest in a borrowed crypt from his friend, June Mathis. Then on the anniversary of his death in 1927, a mysterious veiled woman clad entirely black left roses at the star’s final resting place before vanishing. 

Every year, she would return, repeating the same ritual while creating intrigue of her identity. Was she a former lover? An obsessed fan? Regardless, the mystery continues today for all to contemplate — and possibly even witness a rare glimpse of the infamous “Lady in Black.”^[3]

2 A Tangled Webb

Actor Clifton Webb, a two-time Oscar nominee, is best remembered for his supporting roles in films such as Laura and The Razor’s Edge, and the first to portray the character “Mr. Belverdere.” But to the paranormal community, Webb receives top billing as a man who not only saw ghosts and lived with a ghost — but even became one himself. 

Born on November 19, 1889, in Indianapolis, Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck began his career in showbiz as a ballroom dancer. He later appeared on Broadway under his newly adopted stage name and starred a string of successful musicals as well as comedic plays by his good friend, Noel Coward. 

He went on to achieve movie stardom in his mid-50s, playing obsessively well-dressed, pedantic characters that never strayed too far from his vibrant personality. At a time when studios demanded that artists keep their sexuality closeted, Webb never hid that the fact that he was gay. His wit and charm also made him a popular figure on the Hollywood party circuit and as a host of lavish gala affairs.

Additionally, throughout his adult life, he lived exclusively with his overbearing mother, Maybelle, who accompanied him everywhere — including the afterlife. Not long after she died in 1959, Webb claimed Maybelle often appeared in the form of an apparition at their plush Rexford Drive mansion in Beverly Hills. However, she wasn’t the only one. 

Webb, an insomniac, told friends that he’d seen the ghost of Grace Moore, a famous opera singer, who once lived at the house prior to a fatal plane crash in 1947. And then shortly before his death in 1966, Webb predicted he would never leave the beloved home. Ever.

Subsequent owners of the property reported seeing the shadowy appearance a couple dancing near the front entrance. Sadly, the Rexford Drive house would be torn down in 1982, causing the Webbs to take up residence elsewhere. But not just anywhere. Visitors at Hollywood Forever have reported seeing a dapper, ghostly figure pacing up and down the long marble corridor of the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum. There, near the crypt Clifton shares with his mother, the actor remains in search of a good night’s slumber.^[4]

1 Scandal of the Century

Since the birth of the movie industry, countless young women (and men) have flocked to California from all over the world with hopes of achieving fame and fortune. Chicago-born beauty Virginia Rappe was one of them.

The brunette fashion model managed to land a handful of roles before her career took a fatal turn. On September 5, 1921, Rappe attended a party at the elegant Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco to honor the popular comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle.

The portly funnyman had recently signed a lucrative contract with Paramount Pictures, making him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. Despite Prohibition, bootleg booze flowed freely throughout the raucous evening.

At some point during the celebration, Rappe became ill and rested inside Arbuckle’s suite. Witnesses recall seeing her suffering in agonizing pain as her condition continued to worsen. She died a few days later at the age of 26. A massive scandal ensued, alleging Arbuckle had violently raped her and caused her bladder to rupture.

Three sensational trials followed, creating a media circus fuelled by an outage public. The first two proceedings ended in hung juries before a panel found Arbuckley not guilty. His career, however, never recovered. In 1933, he attempted a comeback with Warner Brothers Studios to star in a series of comedies but died from a heart attack shortly before shooting began. 

Over the years, the sounds of a sobbing woman have been heard around Rappe’s gravesite at Hollywood Forever. Perhaps her spirit continues to lament over a career ruined — or to paraphrase Raymond Chandler, the cold chill felt then and now, serves as a reminder that L.A. is a town where the angels left a long time ago.^[5]

About The Author: Christopher Warner is an actor and freelance writer. His articles have appeared in several magazines and websites across multiple genres, including Military History Matters, Portland Monthly, WWII Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Aviation History.

Getting sick can be scary, especially when you’ve been infected with something that’s messing with your private parts—like gonorrhea, the second most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the US.

Gonorrhea causes pain when urinating, discharge, sore throat, fever, and achiness. Some of its symptoms are ignored because they’re associated with other illnesses, and some cases of gonorrhea are asymptomatic. Nevertheless, gonorrhea can be quickly and easily spread.

Adding insult to this already painful infection, gonorrhea’s street name, “the clap,” can be traced back to clapier, which is an old French term for “brothel.” “If you’ve spread the clap, give us a round of applause” is another old saying that suggests that giving the clap is some kind of accomplishment.

But gonorrhea is no celebratory matter. It has us scared for more reasons than just pain and discomfort.

10 The Inspiration For Its Name

Its name was inspired by the thought of a penis dripping “seed” against its will. Gonorrhea was named by Galen, a Greek doctor, in the second century. The name “gonorrhea” refers to Galen’s impression that the discharge caused by the disease was “seed” flowing out of a patient’s penis. The discharge is likely what caused one of gonorrhea’s more well-known nicknames, “the drip.”^[1]

9 Why It’s Called ‘The Clap’

Gonorrhea is called “the clap” because of the way people used to treat its symptoms. The disease causes discharge in both males and females. Many infected men slammed heavy objects against their penises to release the discharge.

Some of these objects included a large book or the butt of a rifle, which is likely related to high rates of gonorrhea in soldiers during wartime. Now, the clap is usually treated with antibiotics. But with health officials expecting gonorrhea to become more resistant to drugs in the future, it’s a bit scary to think of the “slap down” treatment making a comeback.^[2]

8 Super Gonorrhea

The clap could soon become “super gonorrhea” that is resistant to the antibiotics used to treat it in the past. According to medical journal PLOS Medicine, more than 90 percent of the 77 countries participating in a gonorrhea tracking program report some kind of gonorrhea that is resistant to antibiotics.

One reason why it’s becoming resistant is unprotected oral sex. Many patients with gonorrhea are treated for sore throats, one of its many common symptoms. But the disease then becomes resistant to the antibiotics prescribed for the sore throat.

Doctors are running out of options to treat gonorrhea, and world health professionals are freaked. “It’s at a critical stage. We’re at our last class of antibiotics,” says Thomas Hiltke, program officer at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Sexually Transmitted Infections Branch.^[3]

7 More People Are Getting Infected

More people are getting infected, including individuals who are getting the superbug. From 2015 to 2016, the incidence of gonorrhea in the US increased by 18.5 percent to 468,514 cases. From the historic low point in 2009, gonorrhea cases have skyrocketed by 48.6 percent in the US.^[4] Since 2015, at least 16 cases of antibiotic-resistant “super gonorrhea” have been reported.

Doctors in Japan confirmed one recent case involving a sex worker whose gonorrhea could not be treated with cefixime or ceftriaxone, which have been used to treat these kinds of super cases. Right now, antibiotics like azithromycin are being used to treat these cases, but even azithromycin has been ineffective in patients whose systems weren’t healed.

Coupled with the fact that funding for many STD and other health clinics has been slashed, it’s almost certain that these cases will continue to grow.

6 Gonorrhea Can Trigger Other Medical Problems

Gonorrhea may trigger heart problems later in life, and infected mothers may pass along the disease to their babies, resulting in blindness for the children.

Aside from causing things like pelvic inflammatory disease in females and sterility in males (like many sexually transmitted diseases do), those who have gonorrhea are at risk for having other medical problems years after being infected, including the inflammation of their heart valves.^[5]

Even mothers with gonorrhea who give birth could pass along the disease to their children, who in turn could suffer some nasty eye infections or blindness. Most of all, gonorrhea causes misery.

5 Questionable Moral Character

If you have gonorrhea, chances are that you have questionable moral character, too. According to C.V. Roman’s “Syllabus of Lecture to Colored Soldiers” (published in 1918 in the Journal of the National Medical Association), gonorrhea is generally not spread by people of high moral character. (If someone “pure and good” does get it, like a married woman, it’s because her husband gave it to her. As a result, he is a criminal.)

According to the author of this syllabus, “the running range” (aka gonorrhea) is the most dangerous of the three venereal diseases because it can be easily and quickly spread with few symptoms. He goes on to say:

It begins as a little smarting when urine is passed, finally pain, swelling, and a discharge that is highly contagious—the smallest bit of it in the eye may destroy vision.

This is a frequent cause of sore eyes and blindness in babies—mother, usually a pure, good woman, has been, unknown to her, infected by her husband, and she in turn infected the baby while passing through the birth canal.

A man that would willfully put out the eyes of an innocent baby is the meanest of criminals. Yet that is what a man does who takes clap to the marriage bed. If there is any Hell, I think the hottest place in it ought to be reserved for the man who willfully spreads venereal disease. A man with no respect for a pure woman is not fit to live.^[6]

On the flip side, this vintage ad suggests that females are the ones who are spreading the disease through promiscuous behavior—or booby traps. Watch out for the juke joint sniper!

4 Condoms May Not Work

Condoms don’t always prevent gonorrhea. “No glove, no love” doesn’t apply here. Old ads that suggested urinating after sex, washing with soap and water, or visiting a “prophylactics station” may not be much help to those with advanced cases.

Why?

Condoms may not protect against gonorrhea because there may be other uncovered areas on the body, such as a sore, where infected bodily fluids can spread the disease. As gonorrhea can be asymptomatic at first, especially in females, it can take up to 30 days before you start experiencing any symptoms.

For men, symptoms usually begin two to seven days after infection. However, up to 15 percent of men and approximately 80 percent of women may not show symptoms. This can lead to the unwitting spread of the disease or unnecessary complications because it isn’t treated promptly.^[7]

3 Likelihood Of Getting Other STDs

Although there isn’t enough data to medically support the claim, it’s believed that more than 70 percent of young people who contract gonorrhea will get another STD in less than a year. Patients with untreated gonorrhea often develop scarring on their reproductive organs. Untreated gonorrhea can also spread to other areas of the body.^[8]

2 Mercury Injections

Gonorrhea used to be treated with mercury injections into the penis. If today’s antibiotics don’t work to cure super gonorrhea, let’s hope that doctors don’t turn back the clock to some of the older treatments.

Before the 1940s, when penicillin became a common medicine, doctors used various treatments, including mercury injections. After that, other treatments like colloidal silver, arsenic, gold, bismuth, and other minerals were used. Their effectiveness was rated on whether a patient’s discharge stopped.

Most recently, Listerine has been tested as a cure for gonorrhea. The number of cases in gay or bisexual men has risen, mostly because many don’t use condoms or they engage in oral sex.

In a recent trial, scientists treated gonorrhea bacteria cultures with Listerine and found that the mouthwash did reduce the number of bacterial counts. Roughly 200 men who came in for gonorrhea treatment were also told to rinse and gargle for one minute with either Listerine or saline solution. The men who used Listerine were “significantly less likely to have a positive culture on the pharyngeal surface (52 percent) compared with men in the saline group (84 percent).”^[9]

1 Famous Victims

Gonorrhea has claimed the health of many famous people, including actress Tallulah Bankhead who had to have an emergency hysterectomy. Bankhead’s case was so severe that she was hospitalized. She thought that she had a stomach tumor but was told that she had gonorrhea instead. Bankhead weighed just 32 kilograms (70 lb) when she was released from the hospital.

Other famous people with gonorrhea included John Dillinger, a famous gangster. He was diagnosed with the disease in 1924 when he was sent to prison. His gonorrhea treatment included being injected with silver nitrate through the penis.

Biographer James Boswell was another victim of the disease, even though he said he wore condoms while sleeping with prostitutes. He claimed that he contracted gonorrhea the first time he was sexually active. In his diary, he kept track of his sexual activities. One day, he reported that his testicle swelled immensely and his wife “reluctantly” helped him treat it.^[10]

Sci-fi horror is a burgeoning movie and TV genre that, in a sense, is a testament to humanity’s fear of the unknown. And yet, like Manifest Destiny that drove American settlers westward, the compulsion to explore it burns strong in modern society. Some byproducts in our race to space have bettered our lives: take baby formula or smartphone cameras (though unfortunately, unlike popular belief, Velcro and Tang were not, in fact, created by NASA). But the more we learn what’s out there, the more true horrors emerge to justify our existential dread. Take, for instance, the following 10 Frightening Facts About Our Solar System that will forever change your perception of where we live and how our tiny little blue planet has made it this far.

10 Space Dinosaurs On The Moon

There hasn’t been a crewed landing on the moon since 1972. So what the heck is actually up there? Luckily, we have technology like NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring telescope and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Orbiter has been circling the moon and sending back measurements since 2009. And part of what scientists found was actual dinosaur bones sent off Earth from the meteors that led to their downfall.

The moon has no atmosphere to create wind to erode them, and thus they remain in perfect condition. Who knows what discoveries to help complete our fossil record remain there, tantalizingly out of reach. And with how surprising it was to find dead dinosaurs on the moon, let’s not rule out living ones…

9 Pluto isn’t a Planet, But if it Was

We’re sorry if this is where you hear the final verdict on the infamous debate: Pluto is and always has been a dwarf planet. We’re also sorry that the American Education System has failed you because there’s a lot more in our Solar System than just eight planets and one dwarf planet. There are four more officially classified dwarf planets in our Solar System: Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris, and they have always been there.

We’ve known about Ceres since the 1800s! Makemake even has its own moon, while Haumea has two! Additionally, there are dwarf planet candidates. Possibly as many as 200 in the Kuiper belt and over 10,000 in the region beyond. Scientists believe that some larger moons like Neptune’s Triton are dwarf planets caught in the planet’s orbit. If we don’t even hear about dwarf planets, what else aren’t they teaching us?

8 Earth isn’t The Only Active Planet (tectonically)

One of the most important features to shape our planet, literally, is our ever-shifting tectonic plates. This process began about 3.3 to 3.5 billion years ago and gave rise to mountains, islands, volcanoes, sea vents, etc. It is one of a multitude of reasons life on Earth exists at all. The rest of our solar system seems pretty stagnant: we’ve got our rocky planets between the Sun and us and some big swirling gas giants behind us, big whoop.

Well, it wasn’t until 2016 that data from the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft revealed that innocuous little Mercury is shrinking, thanks to these same tectonic processes. Meaning, it hasn’t finished forming in the 4.6 billion years since the formation of our Solar System. Our little bubble of space as we know it today is merely a snapshot; don’t get too comfortable in the false assumption that everything will remain the same forever. If we just found out that Mercury was shrinking, imagine someday finding out the Earth is, too.

7 Walking On Air Isn’t All it’s Cracked Up To Be

Every kid dreams of becoming an astronaut. That is before the reality of adulthood crushes our dreams and forces us into a 9-5 office job to pay off student loans. But thanks to a beautiful duet between NASA and social media, we have a closer look into the lives of our fine spacemen and women more than ever before. And they’re happy to share. Some things like tears in space and floating through their cabins seem truly whimsical. However, the majority of adapting to zero gravity is difficult at best and debilitating at worst (especially returning to Earth after a long mission). This all brings us to their feet.

They’re not using them much. We know that much. Without the friction of walking, running, and other activities, the skin on the bottom of their feet softens and sloughs off. In order to conserve space for packing, they’ll wear the same socks multiple days in a row, too. And if they aren’t careful with removal, dead foot skin goes flying everywhere, creating macabre chaos of free-floating skin strips.

6 Space isn’t As Far Away As it May Seem

We’re not talking about how close we are technologically to commercial space travel. Instead, we’re talking about how little atmosphere there truly is between the Earth we walk on and where space begins, known as the Kármán Line. If you could get in your car and drive vertically at 60 mph, you would be in space in just an hour and change.

That’s right, that’s only 62 miles away from where you’re standing right now. Imagine that being your morning commute. The current record holder for highest space jump is Felix Baumgartner, sponsored by Red Bull (stellar marketing, honestly), and GoPro, who took a stratospheric balloon 24 miles high and jumped. The trip up only took him 90 minutes. And thanks to our good friend gravity, his free fall before deploying parachutes was only 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

5 Planet Nine

As romantic as gazing into the night sky is, real astronomy actually takes a lot of math (which is frightening enough on its own). Many discoveries are made by crunching the numbers, calculating away until an anomaly pops up, and scientists have to figure out why. At the outermost edge of our Solar System exists one such anomaly.

Astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown from Caltech announced in 2015 the theoretical “Planet Nine” as an explanation for the movements of some objects in the Kuiper Belt cocooning our Solar System. Planet Nine was originally thought to be a Neptune-sized planet with an orbit around the Sun taking 15,000 earth years. In 2019 a new theory emerged: Planet Nine may actually be a primordial black hole. It is thought these phenomena formed at the beginning of the universe when extra dense pockets of material collapsed in on themselves. This one has possibly been captured by our Sun’s gravity and although it’s calculated to be quite tiny (only 3.5 inches across), it is still mighty. And even worse, mighty close.

4 There’s Nothing to Stop the Great Red Spot and other Space Storms

Anyone who has survived a major hurricane can attest to how truly powerful this kind of storm system can be. And yet, the worst ever seen on Earth is child’s play compared to the gas giant Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Around two to three whole Earths can fit inside the storm, which has been documented by astronomers for over 300 years. Its winds blow up to 270 mph on average but around its oval-shaped edges can get up to 425 mph (keep in mind, the strongest winds detected on Earth have only been recorded over 200 mph a handful of times).

It also eats smaller vortices upon impact. In 2000, it engulfed three smaller storms and then, unbelievably, turned a deeper, bloodier red. Another example is Saturn’s raging six-sided storm nicknamed “the hexagon,” which has also been spinning for possibly hundreds of years. We don’t know why it has taken this shape or lasted this long. What we do know is that when travel between planets is available, we wouldn’t want to get anywhere near one of those!

3 Hell on Earth(‘s Neighbor)

Turns out, there’s little to actually love on Venus. We can’t think of what would be a worse death: being crushed by intense atmospheric pressure or incinerated by blazing temperatures. Good thing that with Venus we don’t have to decide. Both happen instantaneously upon entering Venus’s atmosphere. Temperatures average around 860 degrees Fahrenheit and it rains sulfuric acid.

What’s scary about this death planet is taking a good long look and seeing it as the potential warning it is: Venus got where it is thanks to a runaway greenhouse effect. Sound familiar? Venus may have been in habitable condition for around 3 billion years, until 700 to 750 million years ago. Problems like the polar caps melting on Earth seem like an easy fix compared to Venus’s seas having boiled away entirely.

2 The Solar System is Over the Hill

Life: you’re born, you grow, you age, and then you die. These are simple facts. The fleeting nature of our existence, some say, makes it beautiful. But we’re not the only ones with this blessing and curse. Our universe is theoretically 13.77 billion years old, plus or minus 40 million years. Scientists estimate that our Solar System is about 4.6 billion years old. And scientists think we’ve only got about another 5 billion years left in our little corner of space. That’s it.

To our knowledge, it’s taken this much time to develop intelligent life. Humans might not get a second chance at developing sentience should we die out. But should our descendants carry on so long, they better find a new home, because the end is near…

1 And When We Go, We’ll be Eaten by Our Own Sun

The Sun, benevolent light and energy giver, will be the deliverer of our demise. Once it runs out of the hydrogen necessary for nuclear fusion, its core will shrink, while conversely, it will begin to shed its outer layers, becoming a bloated carcass of its former self.

This growth will extend so far as to completely envelop our Earth. And before that, the heat and radiation cast off will roast everything on Earth entirely. It will even cremate everything in the entire Solar System. Only then will the Sun cool into a White Dwarf and cast light no longer. The once vibrant Solar System will become a cold, quiet, dead place. Like most everywhere in the universe.

Diseases are a natural side effect of living in a competitive place like Earth. Most diseases can be categorized by the pathogen they’re contracted through, even if not all of them require an external organism to spread.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Fascinating Diseases That You Can Smell

While we understand the nature of most diseases by now, there are still many we don’t have definitive cures for. Then there are the diseases that aren’t like anything else we know, and baffle even the best of our researchers. Case in point; prion diseases.

Prions aren’t like any other disease we know of, mostly because they’re not a disease at all. Prions are a type of protein found in the body that get folded out of shape for some reason, and have the ability to misfold other proteins of the same type by contact.

That may sound innocuous, but that property gives way to one of the most mysterious and deadly disorders we know of.

10 We Don’t Know Why Prions Exist (Or What They Even Are)

Prions are animal tissue proteins that are found in many parts of the body, mainly the brain, spinal cord and eyes. They’re not dangerous in themselves, and may even serve some purpose in the body, though they have a tendency to go rogue.

You see, prions have an inclination to just change their shape and become contagious. That means that they can transfer their misfolded pattern to other proteins, causing them to do the same and spread. Depending on the type of misfolding, it can cause a variety of serious diseases, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Interestingly, we still don’t know why prions exist at all, as they seem to do nothing of note in the body, even if the diseases they cause can be debilitating. Some studies suggest that they may have a role to play in the functioning of the nerves.^[1]

9 They’re Ridiculously Hard To Kill

Dealing with diseases caused by pathogens is just a matter of finding out how to kill or stop the external organism causing it. While we’re still figuring out how to do that for some sturdier species, we largely have the means to eradicate most diseases by the old school ‘kill ’em all’ method.

Unfortunately, prions are too far advanced to be killed by our usual methods. There have been many cases of people contracting a prion disease simply by coming in contact with infected hospital equipment. The usual methods of disinfection designed to kill off bacteria and viruses – like radiation and heat—just don’t work on prions. They can reportedly survive temperatures of 121 degrees Celsius (249.8f), which is more than enough to kill most pathogens we know of.^[2]

8 They Aren’t Even Alive

Prions are especially deadly due to the speed with which they can infect other proteins. All the diseases caused by prions are serious, disabling conditions. The most common one is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which can cause disability and a rapid death within a year. Thankfully, most cases are reported around the age of 60, and the disease itself is pretty rare.

For all the damage they can cause, prions don’t seem to have any characteristics of other pathogens. For one, they don’t have any genetic material like DNA or RNA, and no body parts to speak of. More importantly, they’re not even alive. They’re essentially deformed proteins and not separate organisms, making them potentially more dangerous as they have no fear of death.^[3]

7 Their Use In Warfare

Biological weapons have been used in warfare for a long time, and there are still a worrying number of cases of their use in conflicts around the world. They’re also surprisingly easy to obtain in conflict areas, making them accessible to violent militant groups and rogue states. Even a small-scale bio attack in a densely populated region could wreak havoc on its population, both physically and mentally.

Most bio weapons we know of are made up of deadly strains of bacteria or viruses, though because of advanced medicine and quarantining mechanisms in many first world countries, we’re getting better at combating attacks like that.

That’s where prions come in. Because of not being a pathogen by definition, bio weapons designed with prions would be nearly impossible to detect or contain. Prion diseases are highly infectious and cause neurodegenerative disorders at a blinding pace, which can be deadly in the hands of, say, a terrorist group.^[4]

6 A Whole Different Category Of Diseases

When they were first discovered, prions didn’t make sense to anyone. It would be years till they would be recognized as a type of disease, though because of its peculiarity, we still don’t know what type that would be.

Prion diseases are nothing like any of the diseases we know of in any branch of medicine. They’re primarily caused by an excess of bad – or misfolded – proteins in organs like the brain, and cause a variety of rare conditions unlike any other disorder known to medicine. Many other baffling diseases we have never truly been able to explain – like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s—are now being linked to prions, too.^[5]

5 We Don’t Know How Many Types There Are

Because of being rare conditions, prion diseases remain poorly studied. Growing research in recent times has shed some light on the mysterious diseases, though we still don’t quite understand the underlying mechanisms that cause them. Not just that, we’re not even aware of all the types of prions there can be.

Many diseases that were previously considered to be related to something else have recently been found to be caused by prions, as our definition of what prions are is consistently expanding. We still have little idea about all of their varieties in existence, as even the ones we know of are still not properly understood.^[6]

4 The Copper Connection

Prion diseases are noteworthy for spreading inside the body at an alarming rate. Death usually occurs within months – though sometimes years – of contracting one, and there’s little we know about the underlying causes. We don’t know what causes proteins to misfold in the first place, and answers are hard to come by because of how rare the disease is.

According to some recent research, though, we may have found at least one culprit; copper. Researchers from Iowa State University have found that copper ions in the body cause prions already present in the brain, spinal cord etc. to misfold. Exposure to copper was long thought to be associated with prions, and this was the first time it was proven in the lab.^[7]

3 The Conspiracy Theories

Prions aren’t like other diseases (or anything else we know of) in many ways, which is why some scientists refer to them as the ‘weirdest living molecules ever’. They’re not alive, have any genetic material to be a separate species, and – apparently – are at the center of quite a few conspiracy theories.

While the absurdity of the theory depends on which part of the Internet you’re in, some of them may as well be true. Some theorists think that the government is looking into prions for a lot of their experimental research, as they have plenty of applications in warfare. They’re also getting increasingly popular in the zombie apocalypse subcultures, as prion diseases directly affect the brain and could, theoretically, be used to turn people into zombies.^[8]

2 That Time It Spread Through Cannibalism

Cannibalism was as popular in Papua New Guinea as regular eating is in other places. Residents widely accept that cannibalism is a thing their ancestors used to do, and it’s totally cool by them. While we doubt that any cannibal tribe in Papua New Guinea survives to this day, it’s a known fact that they did until very recently.

Cannibalism has caused its fair share of health problems – as it’s popularly forbidden for a reason – for the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea. Take the Fore tribe as an example. When researchers went to check up on them in the 50s, they found that about 200 tribespeople were dying every year from a mystery illness. The symptoms included trouble while walking, a loss of control on the body and eventual death.

The researchers at the time couldn’t guess the roots of the illness, though as we later found out, it was due to prions. It was spreading through cannibalism, which was so common that kids would have body parts as snacks.^[9]

1 There’s Still No Cure

From everything we know about prion diseases, they sound like horrible disorders to have. Most of them are degenerative in nature and restrict brain function, leading to death in all cases. The worst part? We have no way of stopping a prion disease from eventually killing you.

Even if these diseases are rare, those who do contract them have no choice but to go through all the stages of it. Some medications can delay the symptoms, and treatment mostly consists of making things comfortable for the patient than anything else. Moreover, all prion diseases are fatal, though there’s some comfort in the fact that it’d likely not happen to you or anyone you know.^[10]

About The Author: You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked (www.cracked.com/members/RudeRidingRomeo/) and Screen Rant (https://screenrant.com/author/hshar/), or get in touch with him for writing gigs ([email protected]).

Hamsters: incredibly cute little critters. They’re best known for ambling around their sawdust-filled cages and lapping from their little water droppers. Hamsters, mice, rats, and other rodents make popular pets, especially among children. However, these pets have the potential to turn deadly.

Here are ten times the chubby little rodents have brought about tragedy.

Related: 10 People Killed By Animals You Wouldn’t Expect

10 Thomas Magee, 2005

One afternoon, a woman collected her new pet from a PetSmart store in Rhode Island. The little hamster was skittish, rattling around in his cardboard carrier on the drive back home. When releasing him into his new cage, the woman was bitten on the finger. It drew a tiny pinprick of blood, but she thought nothing of it—he was just nervous about his new home, perhaps.

Shortly after that, the woman suffered a stroke due to unrelated causes. She was on the U.S. Organ Donor list, and her family was glad that her organs could go on to help others lead fulfilling lives.

Massachusetts General Hospital was, at this time, overseeing the treatment of Thomas Magee. He needed a liver transplant, and the unnamed hamster owner was a match. The surgery went ahead with few complications; however, five days post-surgery, Magee presented with high blood pressure and a fever.

A month post-surgery, Thomas Magee was dead.

The woman’s liver was not the only organ donated—both lungs and a kidney had also been donated and already implanted into two successful matches in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Unfortunately, both of these other patients would also later die.

The deaths were eventually found to be a case of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Rodents can occasionally infect humans with this saliva-borne disease, though it usually presents as cold and flu symptoms.nk3] Unfortunately, as organ transplants demand a patient be immunosuppressed, the three organ recipients were at the mercy of the viral infection. This scenario was not limited to these three patients as the video above reveals.^[1]

9 Hong Kong, 2022

On January 15th in Hong Kong, a 23-year-old pet-shop worker tested positive for the Covid-19 Delta variant. This was “bizarre,” as Hong Kong had maintained a totally zero-covid approach.

Digging deeper, officials decided to test the animals at the pet shop for a possible viral jump from animal to human. Here, they detected SARS-CoV-2 in 11 of 28 Syrian hamsters. Some of these hamsters had caught the disease in the Netherlands in 2021, where it had then spread among the little critters during shipping.

This caused an outbreak of roughly 50 Covid cases before being swiftly suppressed. Part of this suppression involved the collection and mass culling of 2,000 pet shop hamsters and other small pets. However, there was no evidence that anyone caught the virus from the infected hamsters.^[2]

8 Hong Kong, 2013

This wasn’t the first time hamsters had caused chaos in Hong Kong. In April 2013, a young girl was playing with her pet hamster. Suddenly, the hamster bit the 11-year-old on the pinky finger of her right hand. Returning the hamster to its cage, the young girl calmly walked to the kitchen, and her dad cleaned the wound.

Shortly afterward, the girl developed cramps and passed out. She was rushed to the Prince of Wales hospital in Sha Tin. However, it was too late—shortly after 2 am, she was declared dead.

Pediatrician Dr. Anthony Ng Wing-Keung stated that as the girl was asthmatic, there was the very rare chance she developed anaphylaxis, which is a rapid and serious allergic reaction that can affect breathing passages.^[3]

7 Ashley Green, 2007

Father of two, Ashley Green, almost suffered a similar fate at the last young girl. In 2007, the British man was playing with the family pet hamster, Sydney, when the rodent took a tumble. When he went to catch the hamster, the rodent bit his hand.

His wife describes how “within seconds, he began to wheeze. I knew straight away he must be allergic because the previous year he suffered a massive anaphylactic reaction to penicillin.”

The man’s face started to turn grey, and he was whisked off to a nearby hospital. The doctors battled for four days to stabilize his blood pressure. Thankfully, Green made a full recovery, and Sydney was rehomed shortly afterward.^[4]

6 North America, 2005

In 2005, two young boys from South Carolina and Minnesota fell ill. One had just bought a hamster, the other a small mouse. Unfortunately, both rodents died shortly after being bought home. Nevertheless, the boys’ conditions worsened; others around them also started to suffer from abdominal cramps, fever, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea.

In total, six people were hospitalized. The symptoms matched severe cases of salmonella, but the virus was resistant to five major bactericides (ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, and tetracycline).

Ultimately, all 28 primary hamster-caused salmonella patients survived.^[5]

5 United States, 1974

In a research lab in North America, a mysterious outbreak saw medical staff suffering from fever, chest pain, and malaise.

As some staff deteriorated further, blood tests were conducted: it was found to be lymphocytic choriomeningitis. This serious condition can be fatal, as the symptoms can overlap those of meningitis and encephalitis. In addition, locked neck muscles and seizures can soon follow infection.

After some time, all of the research team survived, though the lab hamster population was severely damaged.^[6]

4 United States, 1942

Another outbreak of lymphocytic choriomeningitis was discovered in 1942. This time it was at a cancer research facility, and workers were handling and breeding the small rodents. The facility had been injecting specimens with LCMV-infected tumor cells and had recently increased the rodent population and duration of experiments.

As a result, the viral load was considered large enough to make the interspecies leap: seven employees came down with the virus, though no fatalities were recorded.^[7]

3 Colombia, 2013

Technically, these last few aren’t Mesocricetus auratus but are still small pet rodents. Syrian hamsters could theoretically carry the same viral loads. However, there have been no recorded cases linked explicitly to the pet hamster.

In 2013, doctors in Colombia turned to the CDC for help with a case. A 41-year-old man with HIV had come in, suffering from fatigue, weight loss, fever, and coughing. Full-body scans revealed growths in his lungs, liver, and adrenal glands.

However, the scans on his lungs puzzled the doctors immensely. The cancer cells were tiny, approximately 10x smaller than human cancer cells. The tumor cells also appeared to be morphing together, a behavior rarely seen in human cancer cells.

After three months of testing, the CDC found dwarf tapeworm DNA in the tumor cells. Three days later, the man was dead. They concluded that the dwarf tapeworm that had infected the man had then mutated into cancerous tumors.

Dwarf tapeworm is incredibly common in rodents from pet shops. An epidemiological survey and genetic analysis found that 24.6% of hamsters, mice, and rats in pet shops presented with Hymenolepis nana.

Realistically, developing cancer cells from a hamster infected with H. nana is unbelievably rare. Experts say this was only possible thanks to the man’s severely low number of T-cells due to his HIV diagnosis.^[8]

2 United States, 1997

In May 1997, in the southwestern U.S., a young farmhand started suffering severe respiratory distress. He died very quickly. Mere days before the young man died, his fiancée had also passed away in a similar manner. No initial viral matches seemed to give an answer for the two deaths.

Dr. James Cheek of the Indian Health Service (IHS) stated, “I think if it hadn’t been for that initial pair of people that became sick within a week of each other, we never would have discovered the illness at all.”

Five others shortly died similarly in the Four Corners region. The CDC launched a full response, sending tissue samples to labs and narrowing down the virus to a new form of hantavirus.

The deer mouse was found to be the most-infected specimen of rodent in the area, leading scientists to believe that deer mice had been responsible for the rapid infection of a community. Upon the isolation of this new virus, the disease was named hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.^[9]

1 United States, 2013

In August 2013, a 10-year-old child was suffering from vomiting, headaches, and leg pains. His physician diagnosed him with a stomach bug and prescribed him some anti-nausea medication. He went home, and throughout the next three days, his situation deteriorated rapidly before he collapsed.

Resuscitation was attempted but, after an hour, was deemed unsuccessful. The autopsy noted a small scratch on his body. Ten days beforehand, the boy had brought a second pet rat home. With suspicions in mind, his liver was sent for testing, as was one of the pet rats.

The test returned a positive case of Streptobacillus moniliformis. This is a bacteria that causes the titular “Rat Bite Fever.” Approximately one in 10 bites might cause infection, and if left untreated, it has a fatality rate of 13%.^[10]