For some years now, there has been global concern about the creation of superbugs that are resistant to almost everything, particularly antibiotics. My question is whether something similar could happen with viruses. Do viruses adapt in a way that makes them similar to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or does their rapid adaptation and transmission make them fundamentally different? I tried researching this topic through papers and interviews, but I couldn’t find a clear explanation.
In: Biology
Yes, viruses adapt to most treatments against them. HIV has had a lot of treatments that have worked in the past until the virus has mutated to tolerate them. Indeed, the standard treatment for HIV for a long time, HAART, was actually a combination therapies designed to throw a multitude of antivirals that work on different mechanisms with the idea that the virus shouldn’t be able to adapt to all the different attacks in short enough time to survive.
It’s not become a big thing for a few different reasons, but the big one is that Anti-virals aren’t as widely prescribed or used. This is mostly because they kind of suck and aren’t broadly effetive. Antibiotics typically offer broad protection for a variety of different bacteria, so they are prescribed far more frequently. Since the bacteria are exposed to the stress much more frequently, they’re much more likely to develop immunity.
Most anti-virals are far more specialized in which viruses they work against, so they are not used as generically, and viruses see them less frequently.
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