Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: EvaH on 08/10/2020 14:03:21

Title: Is there a list of most-to-least infectious viruses?
Post by: EvaH on 08/10/2020 14:03:21

Philip asks:

Of the list of viruses, starting with the most infectious to the least infectious, have any virologists been able to put a periodic table of viruses on a chart or list?

Can you help?

Title: Re: Is there a list of most-to-least infectious viruses?
Post by: evan_au on 08/10/2020 21:23:07

There is a nice chart down the bottom of this web page.
- It looks at some well-known diseases, and shows the R₀ value, ie given one sick patient, how many people will catch it from them (on average)
- Of course, the idea of efforts like face masks, social distancing, contact tracing/quarantine and vaccination is to reduce the actual number who get sick below the R₀ (and ideally, < 1, so the disease will eventually become less of a problem),

See: https://www.popsci.com/story/health/how-diseases-spread/

Of course, there are a lot of viruses that don't infect humans at all, so we usually haven't heard of them
- unless they cause major economic impact like Foot & Mouth Disease, which attacks cows and pigs
- Some viruses attack bacteria, and may contribute to keeping a healthy human microbiome by reducing excess numbers of dangerous bacteria