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Top 10 rare and terrifying diseases
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
There are diseases in the world that can surprise and even frighten. Unfortunately, many of them cannot be cured and a person suffering from a very rare disease causes very mixed feelings - surprise and horror at the same time.
Web2Health presents to you the rarest and strangest diseases.
Elephantiasis
A person suffering from this disease experiences an increase in the size of some part of the body several times. The cause of this disease is a parasitic nematode or a defect in the lymphatic system, which causes a violation of the circulation of lymph flow or blockage of the lymphatic vessels. This disease is most often found in the tropics, where a person is infected with filariae - parasitic worms carried by mosquitoes.
Cicero's disease
This disorder causes people to eat inedible things such as dirt, coal, paper, glue, and even feces. Scientists cannot explain the reason for this behavior, but it is believed that it may be related to mineral deficiency in the body.
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Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
This is a neurological disorder that disrupts a person's visual perception. The surrounding objects in the patient's field of vision are distorted and he sees them as much smaller than they actually are. Such disorders can develop against the background of migraines, epilepsy or under the influence of narcotic drugs.
Living Dead Syndrome
Yes, some people suffering from this rare disease actually feel as if they are no longer alive. Often this condition is accompanied by suicidal tendencies and depression. Sometimes the certainty of one's own death is reinforced by hallucinations of a rotting body and cadaveric worms crawling over it.
Vampire Disease
Some people actually have to avoid sunlight to survive. When the sun hits their skin, it starts to blister and they feel like they are burning.
Water allergy or water urticaria
It is surprising, but there is also such a disease when a person simply cannot wash normally due to an allergic reaction to water. When in contact with water, red stripes and blisters appear on the body, which causes pain. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this disease yet.
Necrotizing fasciitis
This is a very terrible disease in which the tissue under the skin is destroyed. The skin takes on a purple hue and gangrene can develop. This is a rare disease, but the mortality rate of patients with this problem is 73%. Bacteria that get under the skin and provoke the disease remain in the body forever.
Hutchinson-Gilford prostate disease
The syndrome of genetic failure causes a person's life to be "fast-forwarded", that is, to age rapidly. Such patients die at about the age of 13. As a result, they look like old people, and their companions are diseases typical for elderly people.
Exploding head syndrome
Patients with this diagnosis constantly hear noise and voices in their heads, they are worried and anxious. Some describe the attacks as a bomb exploding in their head, and some as the sounds of a stringed instrument. Although the etiology of this syndrome is still unknown, there are suggestions that it is related to stress and fatigue.
Werewolf Syndrome
Patients with this rare disease suffer from excessive hairiness, or rather abnormal hair growth on the body and face. The cause of the disease is genetic mutations.