this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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What doesn't kill ya (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Totally 💯

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 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 🥺

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 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.