why do viruses try to kill the thing keeping them alive?
In: Biology
Overall a lot of viruses don’t kill their human hosts, or at least they are able to be able to reproduce and spread to other people before they have a chance to either be eradicated or kill their host.
Take HIV for example, it can be contagious for many years, sometimes unnoticed, before it actually does you in indirectly. Rabies in particular isn’t exactly meant for humans as bats are a much better host, and generally less intelligent and more toothy animals like canines also make better hosts for transmission via bites. Weaker viruses like Rhinoviruses(Cold), Norovirus, Coronaviruses(Cold) or Influenza(Flu) go straight for being highly contagious and highly prone to mutating since they tend to be evicted from the body very fast. Herpes or Chickenpox is rarely of lethal concern.
Meanwhile, if you look at super lethal types of viruses. Smallpox was wiped out. Polio was nearly wiped out. Ebola is extremely rare despite potential for causing more widespread illness. The more dangerous strains of Covid were nearly wiped out as less dangerous mutations have replaced them. Many dangerous viruses, even if highly infectious, tend to be less successful since besides mortality, people are afraid of them enough to put more effort into quarantine and prevention.
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