Influence of viruses and viral infections on human history
Young people with polio receiving physiotherapy in the 1950s
The social history of viruses describes the influence of viruses and viral infections on human history. Epidemics caused by viruses began when human behaviour changed during the Neolithic period, around 12,000 years ago, when humans developed more densely populated agricultural communities. This allowed viruses to spread rapidly and subsequently to become endemic. Viruses of plants and livestock also increased, and as humans became dependent on agriculture and farming, diseases such as potyviruses of potatoes and rinderpest of cattle had devastating consequences.
Smallpox and measles viruses are among the oldest that infect humans. Having evolved from viruses that infected other animals, they first appeared in humans in Europe and North Africa thousands of years ago. The viruses were later carried to the New World by Europeans during the time of the Spanish Conquests, but the indigenous people had no natural resistance to the viruses and millions of them died during epidemics. Influenza pandemics have been recorded since 1580, and they have occurred with increasing frequency in subsequent centuries. The pandemic of 1918–19, in which 40–50 million died in less than a year, was one of the most devastating in history.
Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner were the first to develop vaccines to protect against viral infections. The nature of viruses remained unknown until the invention of the electron microscope in the 1930s, when the science of virology gained momentum. In the 20th century many diseases both old and new were found to be caused by viruses. There were epidemics of poliomyelitis that were only controlled following the development of a vaccine in the 1950s. HIV is one of the most pathogenic new viruses to have emerged in centuries. Although scientific interest in them arose because of the diseases they cause, most viruses are beneficial. Retroviruses drive evolution by transferring genes across species and bacteriophages play important roles in ecosystems and are essential to life.
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The socialhistoryofviruses describes the influence ofviruses and viral infections on human history. Epidemics caused by viruses began when human behaviour...
Hepatitis D virus, which requires Hepatitis B virus to coinfect cells in order to replicate. Helper viruses are also commonly used to replicate and spread...
require the presence of another virus to replicate. Many of these are plant viruses, but animal viruses can be seen in the case of dependoviruses. Within...
aquatic birds are the natural hosts for a large variety of influenza A viruses. Occasionally viruses are transmitted from this reservoir to other species...
vitro). Viruses have evolved specialized molecular mechanisms to efficiently transport their genomes inside the cells they infect. Delivery of genes or...
"infected" with a computer virus, a metaphor derived from biological viruses. Computer viruses generally require a host program. The virus writes its own code...
This timeline of computer viruses and worms presents a chronological timeline of noteworthy computer viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, similar malware...
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals...
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression...
the virus also published its full genome sequence (NC_039345). Zaire ebolavirus "Genus: Ebolavirus". International Committee on Taxonomy ofViruses. Retrieved...
that viruses neither evolve nor self-reproduce. Instead, viruses are evolved by their host cells, meaning that there was co-evolution ofviruses and host...
Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections...
human influenza virusesof 1957 (H2N2) and 1968 (H3N2) arose through reassortment between human and avian viruses, the influenza virus causing the 'Spanish...
impact of this virus is the fact that, "in humans, influenza B viruses evolve slower than A viruses and faster than C viruses". Influenza B virus mutates...
been accused of co-writing the worm. Christmas Tree EXEC Code Red worm Computer virus NewLove Nimda Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms Poulsen...
these processes, RdRps of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) function optimally at a higher temperature than mammalian influenza viruses. Newly synthesized viral...
host cell. After the release of new influenza virus, the host cell dies. Orthomyxoviridae viruses are one of two RNA viruses that replicate in the nucleus...
the isolation of Tobacco mosaic virus, the first virus to be identified; the fortunate coincidence that it is one of the simplest viruses and can self-assemble...
arrived? Or did they evolve by natural or 'social' selection, during the millennia in which the descendants of those pioneers remained isolated, reproductively...
Fauquet CM (2005). Virus taxonomy classification and nomenclature ofviruses; 8th report of the International Committee on Taxonomy ofViruses. Oxford: Elsevier/Academic...
majority of its videos would remain free to view. Social impact of YouTube YouTube Awards YouTube Comedy Week YouTube Original Channel Initiative List of most-subscribed...
Priscilla Mary Roberts (September 2005). Encyclopedia Of World War I: A Political, Social, And Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 689. ISBN 978-1-85109-420-2. Archived...
dissertation was on the subject of computer viruses. The combination of cryptographic technology as part of the payload of the virus, exploiting it for attack...
Posters of World War II: Allied and Axis Propaganda 1939 – 1945 (2011) Moore, Colin. Propaganda Prints: A Historyof Art in the Service ofSocial and Political...
" Social Science History 25#.2 (2001): 151–186. Boddewyn, Jean J., and Esther Loubradou. "The Control of 'Sex in Advertising' in France." Journal of Public...
Schafer, Joseph. The socialhistoryof American agriculture (Da Capo, 1970 [1936]) Schlebecker John T. Whereby we thrive: A historyof American farming,...
rather than to tissue destruction by the viruses themselves. The symptoms of influenza are similar to those of a cold, although usually more severe and...
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