#VirusandBacteria #Killus #SymbioticRelationship
Have you ever wondered why viruses and bacteria seem to have a relentless desire to make us sick? 🦠 Well, it turns out that there are a few key reasons why these microscopic organisms can be harmful to our health. Let’s dive into the world of viruses and bacteria to understand why they want to “kill” us and whether a symbiotic relationship is possible.
##How Viruses and Bacteria Infect Us
###Viruses
– Viruses are not technically alive and require a host to replicate.
– They infect our cells and hijack their machinery to produce more virus particles.
– This process damages our cells and can lead to illness.
###Bacteria
– Bacteria are living organisms that can reproduce on their own.
– Some bacteria produce toxins that harm our cells, leading to various illnesses.
– Others invade our cells and cause damage through direct infection.
##Why Do Viruses and Bacteria Want to Make Us Sick?
###Survival and Reproduction
– The main goal of viruses and bacteria is to survive and reproduce.
– By infecting us, they can use our cells as a host to produce more viruses or bacteria.
– This allows them to spread and increase their numbers, ensuring their survival.
###Evolutionary Advantage
– Viruses and bacteria have evolved to be well-suited for infecting and surviving within their hosts.
– The ability to cause illness can give them a competitive edge in the battle for resources and survival.
###Potential Benefits for the Host
– Interestingly, some viruses and bacteria may unintentionally provide benefits to their hosts.
– For example, certain viruses can transfer genetic material between cells, potentially contributing to genetic diversity and evolution.
##Why Can’t They Live in a Symbiotic Relationship with Us?
###Disease vs. Symbiosis
– While it may seem logical for viruses and bacteria to coexist with us in a mutually beneficial relationship, the reality is more complex.
– Our immune systems are constantly evolving to defend against harmful pathogens, making it difficult for a true symbiotic relationship to develop.
###Balancing Act
– In some cases, bacteria do form symbiotic relationships with us, such as the bacteria in our gut that aid in digestion.
– However, these relationships are carefully balanced and regulated to prevent harmful overgrowth or infection.
###Potential for Future Discoveries
– As our understanding of the human microbiome and the role of viruses in our bodies continues to evolve, it’s possible that new insights will lead to the discovery of more beneficial symbiotic relationships with viruses and bacteria.
In conclusion, viruses and bacteria “want” to make us sick as a result of their natural survival instincts and evolutionary advantage. While a true symbiotic relationship with these microscopic organisms may be challenging, ongoing research holds the potential for new discoveries and insights into the intricate connections between viruses, bacteria, and our own health.
To learn more about the fascinating world of viruses and bacteria, visit our website for in-depth articles and resources. Stay curious and keep exploring the mysteries of the microbial world! 🌐🔬
A lot of viruses and bacteria that cause fatal diseases in humans don’t really intend to kill their hosts. Many of them kill us because they think they’re in a different animal. Flu, whooping cough, typhus, diphtheria, a lot of others, they apply their usual effects and don’t figure that their current host isn’t actually the animal they’re supposed to be in, so the effects affect it vastly differently from the intended and sometimes kill it. It’s a big ol’ whoopsie. On the other hand, that’s exactly what makes human chronic diseases like leprosy so terrible – they can live in you and cause you incredible suffering while keeping you alive.
First of all, there’s no “want” involved. They just do what they do. The closest thing they come to a “want” is the biological imperative of surviving and reproducing.
The ones that reproduce the most make the most copies of themselves, and therefore dominate their species. That means that there’s pressure between different viruses and bacteria to reproduce better than everybody else.
Sometimes this has side-effects, like hurting or killing us. If this benefits their reproduction, then the species will get deadlier. However, if we die too quickly then they won’t be able to reproduce as much, so often a balance is struck here to allow for maximum reproduction.
Sometimes species will hijack parts of our body to help with their reproduction, like increasing our temperatures. However, a lot of symptoms like fever are caused by our immune systems fighting off the disease, and it can actually be our immune systems that end up killing us, in a way. Basically, diseases don’t care if we live or die – all they care about is reproducing.
Many bacteria and fungi are non-pathogenic, and don’t kill us. Many actually benefit us, like our gut microbiome! However, those are just some of the evolutionary paths. There are other ones that pathogenic bacteria and diseases have evolved along instead.
Although the bacteria and viruses inside us will die when we die, by then we may already have infected other people who can then go on to act as hosts to produce even more bacteria and viruses! This is called transmission.
Basically, what is happening is that the microbe can live and multiply well in a human being, so it does so.
– If it doesn’t cause any problems, then we don’t notice.
– If it happens to cause serious problems, then we notice.
You can think of it like this –
– A huge flock of butterflies moves into your area. Nobody complains.
– A huge swarm of locusts moves into your area. That is a problem. The locusts aren’t *trying* to inconvenience human beings, they’re just doing their thing, but that is bad for us.
There’s a theory that microbes do tend to evolve toward a symbiotic relationship with their hosts (you might see this phrased as something like “less virulent strains of this pathogen are becoming more common”), but it might take a while for that to happen.
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Infectious diseases that kill hosts will actually mutate evolve over time to become less lethal, since the host who get very sick quick and die have less chance to spread to others. Covid is a very recent example, very lethal at first, but much less so now even for those not vaccinated. Spanish flu is another example, and only evolved to be so lethal in the trenches of WW1 since they were all cramped in together and couldn’t isolate. So the traits that made it spread quick and skill its host weren’t pressured out naturally. Other diseases that killed humans jumped species so our immune responses were not prepared for it.
Microbes don’t think, they just do, and their only prerogative is to reproduce. If they reproduce then they will keep doing so. Such is the life of any organism, but for a parasite, they have no concern for their hosts safety as long as they can get passed on to another host and continue the reproducing. The microbes still in the original host might die, but their cousins are alive and kicking in a new host, so evolutionarily they are doing great! Don’t think of a particular virus or bacteria as a homogenous group, every single one has its own mutations and differences, thus the risk of being annihilated is low.
>like what do they win on making us sick, there’s like no point
Replicating and spreading which, from a biological perspective, is the point of life. They don’t gain anything from killing their hosts which is why most really bad bugs tend to weed themselves out of the population. They can’t spread.
>why can’t they just live in a symbiotic relationship with us
You live in a huge symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in your intestines. And all of the bacteria on your skin is massively important to help prevent infections from other nastier bugs.
They can’t think. Would you give up 100 billion of your own siblings for one self-interested creature that doesn’t like a stain in their sink and douses it in bleach?
They have no propensity towards genocide. I’ve never heard of a bacteria or virus engaging in surplus killing.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_killing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_killing)
Some of our species will kill another of our own species for looking at them funny.
They don’t want to.
Viruses aren’t even classified as alive. They’re basically mail. Mail that manages to get into cells that don’t want that mail.
Bacteria just want to locate chemical energy (food). Some happen to cause diseases while doing it. We rely on bacteria to survive…
Our own DNA has viruses in it. Like, we are viruses… Amongst other things.
They don’t want to do anything. They just do.
Aside from that they don’t actually try to kill us, at least not intentionally. Like with all life the only “goal” is reproduction & survival. Infecting others and using their bodies has proven to be an effective means to this end. So it invades and reproduces rapidly, consuming the hosts cells and resources. The side effect can be killing the host, but if it reproduces fast enough and the host attempts to expel the infection (coughing, sneezing, breathing, etc) then odds are it will succeed in reproducing and spreading, so there’s no natural pressure to preserve the original host. The goal has already been accomplished.
That doesn’t mean symbiotic balance doesn’t happen. Our gut bacteria could have started as some sort of weak infection that ancient species adapted to. The host consumes food, bacteria gets a free meal, and the host gets nutrition from the bacteria. So long as the bacteria stays in in the digestive system we get along really well.
We also have hundreds of retro-viral markers in our DNA from viruses that infected our ancestors. In fact it’s theorized some of these vial infections helped accelerate and shape our evolutionary path. These could have been very weak viral infections that made us a little sick, but never killed us. As the infected DNA is passed on our bodies adapted to them, rendering them harmless.