Viral virulence

[Hassan Badrane]

stuhansenmic at SPOCK.COLSF.EDU wrote:
>
> I'm an undergrad bio major who has been lurking here for some time.  With
> all this talk of Ebola, it seems to me that a virus that destroys its host
> very quickly is certainly not helping itself.  Would'nt it more beneficial
> for the virus to remain latent for a long period of time to allow it to
> be transmitted further and replicate more? Am I way off track in this idea?
> Thanks in advance for any responses.
> 
> Mike Hansen

hello what can I add to good answers of Michael Ostrander and Kevin W. Ryan is:
what I have learned and understand about this fact is that a virus remain in 
it's host depending on the probability of that host to transmite it.
That means during the evolution of a virus in it's host there is an adaptation
and more a regulation between the virulence and the kind of transmission.
For exemple Ebola virus don't need to infecte humans for long time to be 
transmited but this is not the case for HIV.

Hassan BADRANE