BIO220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Case Fatality Rate, Evolutionary Medicine, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
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BIO220H1 Full Course Notes
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19 perspectives on evolutionary medicine and virulence. Definition: applications of evolutionary principles to the problems of health. Approach: asks why (ultimate) questions rather than how (proximate) questions. Utility: better understanding better prevention, treatment. Diseases need both proximate explanations of underlying mechanisms as well as ultimate explanations of why any vulnerabilities exist. Causes ebola hemorrhagic fever severe, often fatal. First outbreak: 1976: 85% of people who got infected died, since then, there have been about 25 others in africa, small cases, high case fatality rate. Outbreak in 2014 is different: case numbers are higher, but fatalities were lower. The additional mortality rate that a pathogen imposes on an infected individual (the host) Pathogens that harm their hosts thereby harm themselves. Over time, the coevolution of pathogens and their host will lead to a mutualistic association. Instances of highly virulent pathogens are cases where the host-pathogen relationship is recent. Humans are not the main reservoir instead, ebola have coevolved with bat hosts.
