[Taxacom] Revised "Deadliest genera to humans"

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Tony,
         Yes, sharks only kill about 10 to 20 people per year.  Crocodiles kill far more (about 1,000), hippos (500), elephants (100) and lions (100).   I was very surprised at the 500 deaths from hippo attacks, and also surprised about 10,000 deaths from assassin bugs infecting people with Chagas disease.
         However, another suggestion has produced another major addition to my list.  It is an additional one for genus Homo under "bad dietary choices", namely excess alcohol consumption (killing about 2 to 3 million humans worldwide each year from alcoholism).  So I would add genus Saccharomyces (along with Bos, Zea, Saccharum and/or Beta) in that category.
                         --------------------Ken
P.S.  I predict that the 10,000 deaths this year from Chagas disease (via assassin bugs) will exceed the death toll from the new coronavirus.   Meanwhile the contagious genera Norovirus and Alphainfluenzavirus will continue to kill 500,000-800,000 every year.    One major "silver lining" is that the new coronavirus isn't causing much harm to children.  No children or adolescents died from the related SARS virus.

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From: Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 12:18 PM
To: Kenneth Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com>
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Revised "Deadliest genera to humans"

I am guessing that sharks do not make the list - too low down (shame...)

Actually I remember reading that in Australia at least, more people are killed by horses (falling off) than are taken by sharks, making the horse the more deadly animal (!)

Best - Tony

Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
https://about.me/TonyRees


On Wed, 12 Feb 2020 at 03:34, Kenneth Kinman via Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>> wrote:
Hi All,
         Okay, I agree with the suggestions.  Homo definitely tops the list, but I'm splitting it into three categories.
Revised listing of deadliest genera to humans:

Homo via bad dietary choices (especially from Bos, Zea, Saccharum, and/or Beta, i.e. excess sugars and red meat) (over 11,000,000 human deaths per year).
Homo via Nicotiana, causing cancers from tobacco smoking and chewing (over 5,000,000 human deaths per year).
Homo (humans killing over 400,000 humans per year, plus about 800,000 suicides, totaling over 1,200,000 deaths per year).
Mycobacterium, especially M. tuberculosis (over 1,200,000 human deaths per year).
Lentavirus, causing HIV infections (over 770,000 deaths per year).
Plasmodium (Anopheles the vector) causing malaria (over 500,000 deaths per year).
Streptococcus, causing pneumonia (about 500,000 deaths per year).
Alphainfluenzavirus, causing flu (290,000-645,000 humans per year).
Norovirus (about 200,000 humans per year).
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Schistosoma, causing schistosomiasis (about 200,000 humans in the year 2000; but now lower due to treatment programs?)
Entamoeba, causing amoebic dysentery (50,000-100,000 humans per year).
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