[Taxacom] Deadliest genera to humans (in the 21st Century)

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi All,
        I was asked about Yersinia (plague), but from 2010 to 2015 there were 3248 cases reported worldwide, including 584 deaths.  So the current yearly deaths from plague are far below the cutoff of 50,000 in my revised list.  And there is no reason to believe genus Betacoronavirus (which now dominates news coverage of diseases) will kill anywhere near 50,000, so the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is not on the list either.
        Note that in my revised listing below, I have added Treponema to those in the high death number list, and I moved Norovirus down into the less than 250,000 deaths list.
                             -----------------Ken

                                            Deadliest genera to humans in the 21st Century

Homo via bad dietary choices (especially those derived from Saccharomyces, Bos, Zea, Saccharum, and/or Beta, i.e. excess consumption of sugars, alcohol, and/or red meat) (resulting in over 13,000,000 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 900,000 deaths per year).
Streptococcus, causing pneumonia and streptococcal meningitis (over 500,000 deaths per year).
Plasmodium (Anopheles the vector) causing malaria (about 400,000 deaths per year).
Alphainfluenzavirus, causing flu (290,000-645,000 human deaths per year).
Treponema, causing syphilis (about 100,000 deaths per year, plus over 200,000 stillbirths and neonatal deaths; total over 300,000 deaths).
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Rotavirus, causing enteritis (over 150,000 human deaths per year).
Salmonella, causing typhoid fever (over 100,000 human deaths per year).
Neisseria, causing meningococcal meningitis (about 75,000 human deaths per year).
Haemophilus, causing type b meningitis (about 70,000 human deaths per year).
Entamoeba, causing amoebic dysentery (50,000-100,000 humans per year).
Clostridium, causing tetanus (about 60,000 human deaths per year).
Norovirus (over 50,000 human deaths per year; with some estimates as high as 200,000).
Cryptosporidium, causing cryptosporidiosis (over 50,000 human deaths per year).
Schistosoma, causing schistosomiasis (about 50,000 deaths; about 200,000 humans in the year 2000; but treatment programs have reduced the number).
Bordetella, causing whooping cough (about 50,000 human deaths per year).
Shigella, causing shigellosis (about 50,000 human deaths per year).
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