Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: Michael on 22/02/2010 11:30:02
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Michael asked the Naked Scientists:
How does the gene-centred view of evolutionary biology explain diseases that kill their hosts, thus preventing further propagation of the diseases' genes?
Cordially,
Michael Burke
San Diego, CA US
What do you think?
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I think you're right in that train of thinking; the common cold has evolved to be a very successful virus as it doesn't kill us therefore we live to infect, and be infected, again. I guess if the disease is very deadly, it can only survive if it's highly infectious, has a long incubation period in the host, and/or has a secondary host where it's not so lethal. This was the big mystery with Ebola, which is very deadly very quickly in humans. They are thinking it survives in a secondary host- bats- between epidemics in humans.
I guess if I virus was REALLY deadly, it would die out with the host and go extinct. I wonder if this has been documented?
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http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=21532.msg240697#msg240697