#19 Freshwater Snails – kill 10,000 per year
How could a snail cause death, you may ask? After all, aren’t they even slower than turtles? Well, these creatures infect water with a parasitic disease known as Bilharzia.
If you happen to swim in waters with freshwater snails, you could easily become infected with this disease and suffer from blood in the urine, diarrhea, abdominal pain, liver or kidney damage, bladder cancer and eventually, death. So, what is the moral of the story? Just avoid rivers or lakes where you think freshwater snails are living!
starfyre1961#20 Tsetse Flies – kill 12,000 per year
The Tsestse fly gives a whole new meaning to the insect known as the fly! Although it looks roughly the same as your average housefly, it can do a whole lot more damage. This fly has the ability to bite large mammals and suck their blood causing a parasitic disease (African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness).
This dangerous disease causes painful headaches, fever, joint pain, nausea and vomiting. It also leads to brain swelling and trouble with sleep. It mostly affects people living in Sub-Saharan Africa and approximately 12,000 people die from the disease every year: all because of a tiny fly!
#21 Dogs – kill 25,000 per year
Apologies in advance to all the dog lovers out there. However, the fact remains that dogs kill around 25,000 people every year. This is not because they are vicious or agressive but because, in many countries, dogs are not vaccinated against Rabies.
When dogs contract Rabies, they get out of control and attack and kill humans. A human being contracts Rabies from an infected dog bite and dying from Rabies is one of the most dreadful ways in which to die. Obviously, in the developing world, you are far more likely to encounter a Rabid dog and die from a Rabies bite.
