Reading the original paper, they compare Botswana and S Africa and find a correlation between seroprevalence and viral load. There is not good evidence to suggest this is causative however--this may be, for example, that as you get to higher frequencies of cases differently aged people are more likely to be infected and show different viral loads. A direct causal link between these two factors doesn't make a huge amount of sense, because (AFAIK) HIV is thought to sample all viral sequences within each host (so population-level selection should represent individual-level variation).
HIV evolving 'into milder form'
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Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#12What viruses "want" is to reproduce. Killing you is an unfortunate unplanned side effect. If only we could negotiate and agree to allow them to reproduce and not kill us, we'd all get along much better.
http://www.hhmi.org/research/cell-cell-communication-bacteri...
this work is being done with bacteria, not sure it is possible with viruses though.
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#13http://www.davidbrin.com/givingplague.html
A very nice story of Brin based on the notion of a process of
infectious agents "watering down" over time.
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Epstein-Barr virus is close to that ideal, 90-95% of adults have it. Unfortunately, it's connected with cancers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein%E2%80%93Barr_virus
90-95% of adults had it at some point . Most people develop immunity to it and so it doesn't survive in them. I'd say the most successful virus in humans would be the common cold, given how frequently we seem to get it, although it's more of a massive family of virii.
No actually once you have it, you have it forever.
EBV latently persists in the individual's B cells for the rest of the individual's life [1]
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Epstein-Barr virus is close to that ideal, 90-95% of adults have it. Unfortunately, it's connected with cancers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein%E2%80%93Barr_virus
90-95% of adults had it at some point . Most people develop immunity to it and so it doesn't survive in them. I'd say the most successful virus in humans would be the common cold, given how frequently we seem to get it, although it's more of a massive family of virii.
Virii is a nonsense word. Unless, Virius was your original reference word.
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#16What viruses "want" is to reproduce. Killing you is an unfortunate unplanned side effect. If only we could negotiate and agree to allow them to reproduce and not kill us, we'd all get along much better.
http://www.hhmi.org/research/cell-cell-communication-bacteri... this work is being done with bacteria, not sure it is possible with viruses though.
While this is a communication pattern, it is still governed by evolution. Therefore, as a host, you get one vote.
Either you live at least long enough to spread the virus a little bit, and you vote that what the virus is doing is good, or you die before spreading, and you vote what the virus is doing is bad.
Let's get voting !
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#17What viruses "want" is to reproduce. Killing you is an unfortunate unplanned side effect. If only we could negotiate and agree to allow them to reproduce and not kill us, we'd all get along much better.
"Unintended" side-effect yes. But not really avoidable. The very nature of viruses means destruction, competition for resources with other physiological processes in the host, and they only have a limited capacity to tune their reproduction for optimal transmission. Too little reproduction (and in the wrong places) means too little transmission, too much reproduction means too much damage and thus also less transmission.
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#18Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#19That's pretty typical for parasites (which include viruses). Killing your host is never a good idea, the best parasites cause minimal disruption to their host. All animals and humans are infected with countless parasites, but you never notice. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_mite (don't scratch).
Parasites can have multiple host species, some in which they are benign and some in which they are deadly. Malaria has been killing humans for thousands of years. Also for example, HIV.
Re: HIV evolving 'into milder form'
#20What viruses "want" is to reproduce. Killing you is an unfortunate unplanned side effect. If only we could negotiate and agree to allow them to reproduce and not kill us, we'd all get along much better.
Like this? http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3254#comic
Made me think of this one: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3091