Eli5 how different pathogens can cause the same disease

365 views

I got mononucleosis when I was 15 or so and was reading up on it recently because why not. The Wikipedia article says the Epstein-Barr virus *usually* causes it but that other viruses can do as well. How would two different viruses cause one disease? Shouldn’t they be two different diseases even if they have similar symptoms?

In: 4

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

What we perceive as the disease is often the signs /symptoms caused by the body’s immune response in action

For example, pneumonia is the lungs filling with fluid and keeping a patient from breathing. We can see the fluid in an x ray.

But what caused the fluid? Bacteria? Virus? Other injury or pathogens? They’re all pneumonia and lungs with fluid.

You are viewing 1 out of 4 answers, click here to view all answers.