There’s a new report out that the HIV virus may be getting weaker.
EXCERPTS:
A team at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Antwerp, compared HIV-1 samples from 1986-89 and 2002-03.
They found the newer samples appeared not to multiply as well, and were more sensitive to drugs
Researcher Dr Eric Artz said: "This was a very preliminary study, but we did find a pretty striking observation in that the viruses from the 2000s are much weaker than the viruses from the eighties.
"Obviously this virus is still causing death, although it may be causing death at a slower rate of progression now. Maybe in another 50 to 60 years we might see this virus not causing death."
Keith Alcorn, senior editor at the HIV information charity NAM, said it had been thought that HIV would increase in virulence as it passed through more and more human hosts.
But the latest study suggested the opposite is actually true.
Now why would that be? The article goes on to speculate about possible reasons (and they’re only possible; the study might be wrong and the virus might actually be increasing in strength), but it’s important to remember something:
Viruses don’t want to kill you.
In fact, viruses don’t want anything. They have no minds. To the extent they can be said to analogically "want" anything, they "want" only to reproduce themselves. You dying is just a side-effect of their reproductive process. If they can find a way to reproduce without killing you, it’s all the same to them.
In fact, it may even be better, as they can reproduce more if the host stays alive. That’s why the most successful viruses either don’t kill, don’t kill often, or kill really slowly. For viruses, like for people at parties, it’s bad form to kill the host. Tends to bring the party to a halt.
That’s one reason why really destructive pathogens like Ebola only occur in small outbreaks: They kill off the hosts before they can spread far and wide.
Allowing extra life to the host allows extra reproductive potential to the virus, and HIV may be in the process of figuring this out (in a mindless sort of way).
Unfortunately, it’s too slow a process to do anybody today any good.
I just hope HIV weakens enough that we can finally figure out how to give it a knockout punch and eliminate its threat entirely!
In the meantime,
The downside to HIV killing ppl more slowly, like you alluded to, is that it may actually spread farther.
Here’s a creepy thought — a bit of Darwinism in action — the variant viruses that don’t kill the host or kill more slowly are not only able to reproduce more in the individual host but there is also the enhanced potential — in increased longevity (and health of the host) to infect more hosts.
Well, I suppose we can be thankful that the deadlier a viral plague, the faster it burns out.