BIO220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Flu Season, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimethinc. Publications

• School: UTSG
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO220H1
• Professor: Nicole Mideo

Document Summary

Bio220 lecture 19: introducion to evoluionary medicine and the evoluion of virulence. Evoluionary medicine: applicaion of evoluionary principles to the problems of health. Asks why (ulimate) rather than how (proximate quesions) Provides a beter understanding which leads to beter prevenion and treatment. Shouldn"t selecion have weeded out disease and vulnerabiliies: tradeofs structures and systems must balance conlicing demands. Dna repair: longevity healthy dna keeps us alive for longer (+, fecundity less energy and resources for other biological funcions (-) Systems are built for defense against pathogens and degredaion come at some cost: environmental change environments change at a rate that exceed our rate of evoluion. Rate at which we change environment is fast and evoluionary responses are going to be slow to keep up. Selecion doesn"t work very fast: pathogen evoluion pathogens evolve faster than we do. March, 1918 a few dozen wwi recruits had the lu, when they were mobilized they spread the virus to other soldiers increasing transmission.