Kuala Lumpur, July 10: The mention of mutation is enough to give us nightmares of viruses that evolve with the sole aim of killing mankind and taking over the earth.
But in reality, a virus’s main purpose of mutating is to seek coexistence with the human body.
'A virus mutates for survival, not to kill. It tries to adapt to the conditions of the human body, ' International Medical University (IMU) virologist and lecturer Dr Kenny Voon said.
'Humans are a reservoir for the virus. We help it to propagate more. It doesn’t want to kill us, the host. If the host dies, there is no co-existence. This is why its main aim is not to become more deadly,' he adds.
He explains that when a virus first jumps from one species to another we often see a high death rate. This is because the virus has not learnt to live within its new host.
'For example, the common cold was probably a virus that started infecting humans a long time ago and now it just coexists with us,' he said.
'Laboratory results, from a study that compared infectivity and virulence of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants in Syrian hamsters, show that while the COVID-19 virus has become more contagious, it has not become more deadly,' he says, although he does warn that this is an inference made from laboratory testing.
How the virus affects people in the real world can be different.
Case in point, the Delta (Indian) variant. This variant has been speculated to be more deadly because there have been more cases of death reported. However, in laboratory tests, the variant did not show up to be more deadly.
'We will only know once we have more data from community samples.'
Read the full article at DailyStraits.com
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/dailystraitsdotcom.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
EP 52: Jessica Agoston Of Artfull
Podcast: Bikesh Lakhmichand of 1337 Ventures
Australian Made Week June 6-12
Podcast: Sami Chlagou of Cross the Ages
Podcast: Richard Conway of Pure SEO
Podcast: Datuk Yasmin Mahmood Of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia
Podcast: Datuk Vinod Sekhar of Petra Group
Podcast: Kristy and Bryce of "Quit Like A Millionaire"
Podcast: Simin Saghafi Of Iran
Severe Thunderstorm Expected In NSW
News - Severe Thunderstorms Expected
Exclusive Interview With Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
Podcast: Melcom Copeland of Wadzpay
Podcast: Tessa Shaw of Waiheke Walking Trust
Podcast: Christopher Clarke of Kokoswap
Podcast: Steve Pirie of Wonder & Wander
Podcast: Mohd Nasrul Mohd Nasir of the Customs Museum
Podcast: Ahmad Fuad Osman Of Enrique de Malacca
Podcast: Stanley Henry of The Attention Seeker
Podcast: Diana Talit of Matrade New York
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Jim & Bill (It‘s Another Day)
HauntingLive
Dr. Paul’s Worldviews
The Ben Shapiro Show
Morning Wire