this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Don't they usually mutate to less deadly forms? Killing their host isn't exactly a successful strategy.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yes, killing the host is considered a jerk move in the microbial community, but some still take the suicidal path, it's a bacterial insanity issue

[–] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AIDS didn't get the memo, try emailing them.

[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

HIV won't kill you. It weakens your immune system so other diseases kill you.

[–] 0ops@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago

"I didn't kill you. I put an ax in your ribcage so that the bloodloss would kill you"

/s, but only kinda. Whether HIV kills directly or indirectly, at the end of the day the host is still dead and poor HIV has nowhere to live 🥺

[–] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

No but it does mutate at a lighting rate. That's why we can cure it. Something about protein strands constantly evolving.

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Airborne respiratory viruses in humans tend to decrease in lethality. This doesn't really transfer anywhere else. The decrease in severity in is due to selection pressure from human quarantine behavior.

Killing the host is normal in single celled organisms. The most common method viruses leave the cell I by causing it to burst open.

Killing the host is also common in the plant world.

[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I see my mistake. I was overly focused on airborne data. Malaria hasn't really changed for the better has it. Thank you.

[–] jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Cancer is a prime example of op message

Also viruses started somewhere. A lot had to mutate to get them to be so deadly to begin with for deadly ones.

[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Uh... Cancer is not an organism with its own genes. Cancer is you baby, you're just just getting out of control. Viruses sometimes start deadly but they almost always get less deadly over time.

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not true. As the other commenter noted, bacteriophages (which are viruses) are released from the infected bacterium through the lysis of the bacterium in question. The death of the "host" is literally essential to their multiplication.

[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I stand corrected. Let me adjust my comment. Most viruses, the vast majority, are not deadly to humans. Those that are tend to mutate to become less deadly to humans over time.