Virulence's development

       According to pages 114 to 123 from chapter 5, Sharon Moalem presents the idea that some parasites and diseases have effects on our mental ability when they infect us. Even though they can't directly control us people, they still indirectly affect our behaviors and cause us in ways that help them reproduce and spread to other organisms. The degree to which a parasite or disease destroys its host is called virulence; this virulence is a factor in our behaviors as affected hosts. Meanwhile, Paul Ewald, the pioneer of evolutionary biology,  advocates that people can use the understanding of virulence to influence the evolution of parasite away from possible virulence, since shutting down the modes of transmission that do not require human participation will suddenly direct all the evolutionary pressure at allowing the human host to get up and get out. Ewald's main proposition implies that viruses survive and reproduce so that they can introduce genetic variation into their hosts; therefore, his idea connects to the Big Idea 1 (The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.)
       Please list some parasites and disease that have a low virulence and a high virulence, then reason out how and why those disease have a low virulence or a high virulence respectively. How does the development of virulence connect to other biological systems within the body? Furthermore, Moalem later backs up other scientists in suggesting that we should focus on keeping virulence down by eliminating carriers rather than fighting an antibiotic war that he believes we will eventually lose. Do you think his idea is coherent, or do you think we still should continue "fighting an antibiotic war?" Please explain why by relating Big Idea 1 and Evolution unit. You may use outside sources if you need to.

(Hyung Eun (Ginny) Lee-- helee4@students.d125.org)