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Viral evolution is an important aspect of the epidemiology of viral diseases such as influenza (influenza virus), AIDS , and hepatitis (e.g. HCV). The rapidity of viral mutation also causes problems in the development of successful vaccines and antiviral drugs , as resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months after the beginning of a ...
New viruses and strains of viruses were discovered in every decade of the second half of the 20th century. These discoveries have continued in the 21st century as new viral diseases such as SARS [72] and nipah virus [73] have emerged. Despite scientists' achievements over the past one hundred years, viruses continue to pose new threats and ...
Vaccines simulate a natural infection and its associated immune response, but do not cause the disease. Their use has resulted in the eradication of smallpox and a dramatic decline in illness and death caused by infections such as polio , measles , mumps and rubella . [ 84 ]
The virulence of the virus may be changed, [5] or a virus could evolve to become adapted to a different host environment than that in which it is typically found. [5] Relatively few passages are necessary to produce a noticeable change in a virus; for instance, a virus can typically adapt to a new host within ten or so passages. [5]
Antigenic drift is a kind of genetic variation in viruses, arising from the accumulation of mutations in the virus genes that code for virus-surface proteins that host antibodies recognize. This results in a new strain of virus particles that is not effectively inhibited by the antibodies that prevented infection by previous strains.
A founder virus can introduce a different phenotype for the ensuing evolution. Evolution of viruses in nature and as disease agents can be viewed as succession of mutant spectrum alterations, subjected to expansions and reductions of population size in a continuous interplay of positive and negative selection and random drift.
Viral disease is the sum of the effects of viral replication on the host and the host's subsequent immune response against the virus. [3] Viruses are able to initiate infection, disperse throughout the body, and replicate due to specific virulence factors. [2] There are several factors that affect pathogenesis.
Viral phylodynamics is the study of how epidemiological, immunological, and evolutionary processes act and potentially interact to shape viral phylogenies. [1] Since the term was coined in 2004, research on viral phylodynamics has focused on transmission dynamics in an effort to shed light on how these dynamics impact viral genetic variation.