BIO220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Myxoma, Chikungunya, Myxoma Virus
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BIO220H1 Full Course Notes
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Lecture 19: introduction to evolutionary medicine and the evolution of virulence. 3 kinds of questions in medicine (diagnostics (d), treatment (t), prevention (p)) How do we stop people from getting sick. Definition: application of evolutionary principles to the problems of health + disease. Approach: evolutionary medicine asks why (ultimate) questions rather than how (proximate) questions. Questions in medicine: all of these are proximate questions, evolutionary medicine will look at ultimate questions. Diseases need proximate and ultimate explanations: but in evolutionary medicine, we ask why people are vulnerable to disease. Analogy: andrew reed: mechanic is better mechanic if he understands not only how the car is put together but why it"s put together in that way. We saw trait of infection and asked if trait was adaptive for parasite or is it adaptive for host. Fever: fever is a symptom of disease, if fever is helping the host then don"t want to treat fever.
