how does a virus actually kill you?
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The virus will use the cells resources to replicate itself. The virus can use more resources then the cell can handle and the cell will die. If left unconfined the virus will spread from cell to cell and kill each and every one. Eventually you die from some sort of organ failure due to a lack of living cells in that organ. There are not many viruses which are unconfined due to the immune system but HIV is one of them. Without medication the HIV will kill all the white blood cells in your body causing AIDS which is a deadly condition as it will allow other viruses to go unconfined and destroy the other cells in your body.
In a normal healthy human the immune system will react to a virus infection to keep the infection down and stop it. The immune systems response to an infection is proportional to the extent of the infection. But there is no limit to the immune system response. This means that if you get a strong enough infection the immune system might react so much that it kills you. For example in an effort to combat the virus your bodies core temperature might get so high that your neurons coagulate and die. Or if your lungs get infected the inflamation caused by the inrush of white blood cells trying to combat the infection can leak into your lungs and literally suffocate you to death. Infection is your nose and throat can also be deadly to swelling from the inflamation. You might suspect there is a problem with the body when the immune system end up causing most of the deaths from virus infections. But these are big infections which the immune system can not control on its own so the response is more of an all or nothing response.
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