Table 1.

List of zoonotic contagious viruses that cause lethal infections in humans (Source: cdc.gov and ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Virus	Genome (size) sense	Disease	Host	Source of transmission	Symptoms
Avian influenza A	ssRNA (13.5 kb)-negative	Bird flu	Chicken, ducks, geese	Respiratory droplets/dust	Fever, cough, and sore throat
Swine origin influenza virus (S-OIV)	ssRNA (13.5 kb)-negative	Swine flu	Pigs	Respiratory droplets/dust	Fever, cough, and lethargy
West Nile virus (WNV)	ssRNA (10.9 kb)-positive	West Nile fever (WNF)	Birds	Mosquito bite	Fever, encephalitis, and meningitis
Ebola virus	ssRNA (18.9 kb)-negative	Ebola virus disease (EBD)	Bats, non-human primates	Body fluids, tissues, infected fruit bats, and non-human primates	Fever, fatigue, and diarrhea
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV)	ssRNA (29.7 kb)-positive	Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)_	Bats, civet cats	Respiratory droplets	High fever, pneumonia, and diarrhea
Middle East respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)	ssRNA (30.1 kb)-positive	Middle East respiratory Syndrome (MERS)	Dromedary camels	Respiratory droplets	High fever, pneumonia, and diarrhea
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2)	ssRNA (29.9 kb)-positive	Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)	Not determined	Respiratory droplets	High fever, pneumonia

ssRNA, single-stranded ribonucleic acid; kb, kilobase