Why are some viruses lethal?
If I’m exposed to a cold virus, my body creates antibodies to neutralize it, although I might be miserable for a little while.
Likewise with some other viruses.
But some aren’t so compliant as to allow themselves to be neutralized.
What makes some viruses tougher than others?
Uh, read, before hitting “Submit.”
That’s “epidemiologists.”
Oh, boy.
To oversimplify this greatly, it isn’t what the virus is, it is what it attacks.
If the virus is killing off say a red blood cell, the white blood cells can attack it. But what if the virus is attacking the white blood cells. First they must fend off the attack then regroup to kill the virus.
Also you viruses like HIV which mutate at the drop of a hat. If the body fights off a virus that looks like the letter “C” it will again and again defend itself from any virus that looks like the letter “C” but what if in the process the virus that looks like the letter “C” mutates so that now it looks like the letter “C” but also “D” and “E.”
Now you can see where it gets complex. And my explination is an oversimplification.
Also some viruses replicate so fast that they kill their host before the host can mount an antibody response (Hanta, Ebola, Lassa, smallpox).
In other cases, it’s the antibodies & immune response themselves that cause all the damage.
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html
Yeah, all that, and it’s a lot more complicated than that.
[[That’s “epidemiologists.”]]
Yeah, you spelled it right and I’m touched.