7 ms·

90-95% of adults had it at some point. Most people develop immunity to it and so it doesn't survive in them. I'd say the most successful virus in humans would b

by hazz 12y ago

90-95% of adults had it at some point. Most people develop immunity to it and so it doesn't survive in them. I'd say the most successful virus in humans would be the common cold, given how frequently we seem to get it, although it's more of a massive family of virii.

jbogp 12y ago
No actually once you have it, you have it forever. EBV latently persists in the individual's B cells for the rest of the individual's life [1] [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15546128 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15546128
- JabavuAdams 12y ago
  jbogp, I'd be interested to chat with you about your experience interviewing with DeepMind (found that searching HN for DeepMind info). My contact info is on my user profile page. Sorry about the thread-jack.
henderson101 12y ago
Virii is a nonsense word. Unless, Virius was your original reference word.
- anon4 12y ago
  I'm afraid that battle is long lost now :(.
  - chc 12y ago
    Why do you think so? Virii doesn't seem that much more common than viri or viruses.
acveilleux 12y ago
Herpes Simplex is another example. A majority of americans are carriers.
- billpg 12y ago
  That can only be transmitted in one direction. Its Herpes Duplex you have to worry about.
eru 12y ago
The common cold describes a bunch of symptoms that can be triggered by quite a few different viruses.
TrainedMonkey 12y ago
There is some evidence that we went full borg on at least some viruses and assimilated them into our cell machinery: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15310846 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15310846
deleted 12y ago
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