This was from a Simulation of Disease Transmission lab. The spread of the disease in our simulation was very rapid. Within a few minutes many people were infected. Why is the spread of infections slower in real life? Thank you for your answers.
199791
A quotation by Harvey J Gold, Author of Mathematical Modelling of Biological Systems,  may go towards assisting your analysis of the situation:\n\n" The result of a mathematical development should be continuously checked against one's own intuition about what constitutes reasonable biological behaviour. Whenever such a check reveals disagreement, the following possibilities must be considered:\n\na : A mistake has been made in the formal mathematical development\n\nb: The starting assumptions are incorrect and/or constitute a too drastic oversimplification\n\nc: One's own intuition about the biological field is inadequately developed.\n\nd: A penetrating new principle has been discovered. "\n\nDo let me know whether you found meaning in the above, and if you did analyse your model based on the checks recommended by him, what among a,b,c,d was the reason of the discrepancy. Of course this is assuming that you have already established the discrepancy beyond doubt.
121392
What class was this in? What grade level? What text were you using?  I may be able to help you if I know the context in which the question was raised. I have a feeling that I am not getting all the information you had. Please tell me and maybe I can help. I am an old chemist and microbiologist.
231827
This flue is not normal in humans, so thast why government is worried about it. Y?? it doesnt cause only fever, it kills. Actually there is no cure for this desease, only treatment for the consecuences and thats y people is  dying. Cause it affects lungs (blood in lungs), so people stop breathing. And u know most of the people int he world r poor so they wont be able to get this treatment and will die.\nAlso this virus could mutate, and people will get it by being close of an infected person. Cause now u get it ionly if u eat chicken meat. So thats y they r worried, cause they dont have medication, and it would be a pendemia soon if they dont find solutions.
146986
Because the virus is very fragile and cannot survive outside of certain environments for very long.  This includes the proper amount of moisture and temperature.  This is also why the idea of getting the HIV virus from a toilet seat is such a myth.  If the blood, semen, or vaginal secretioins of someone with HIV were to be on a toilet seat, the virus would die in a very short time.\n\nPS. (in response to above) The current population with the fastest increase in infection is straight intravenous drug users.  So in addition to not having indiscriminate sex, straight mosquitoes must not be intravenous drug users....
617259
A recent study confirmed your theory.\n\nIt is particularly the case when the feet or hads are cold.\n\nOf course, like someone said, it is not the coldness alone which makes you ill, but, like you said, your "resistance" is somehow lowered (I think it is that the immune response is slower) and that makes you more vulnerable to any pathogen.
162323
If each bug moves towards its target at constant rate r inches per second, then I think "infinitesimally speaking" because each target is moving at right angles to the direction of its seeker that the distance between seeker and target will lessen at the same constant rate of r inches per second.\n\nThus it will take 10 inches / (r inches per second) = 10/r seconds until all four meet in the center, during which time each will have traveled 10/r * r = 10 inches.
403852
once an infection gets into the blood and you become septic you have a small window of time to get on antibiotics. If the infection passes a certain point they cant stop it even with drugs. It is very common although most people seek treatment before its to late. I went throught the same thing . I thought i had the flu. i was vomiting and could not get warm i was shaking with the chills. i just thought i was a real bad case of the flu. Except i had a small red,warm spot on my arm. The fact that it was warm concerned me.( t=i thought it was a bug bite) I called the dr. and he made me come in. i draged my behind there and he drew blood and sent me to the hospital. for 14 days of antibotic. I was already septic it was from getting pincked by a rose torn while working in the garden. (i dont any more) He said i had 2 days and if i wouldnt have gone in when i did i most likeily would have died. I was so sick believe me at the time i thought death looked real good. They kept me in the hospital 15 days. I had 14 days of the intreviounes antibiotics and constant blood tests. If they dont treat it for 14 days the infection can hide some where in the body. usually the brain and then manifest its self again later. People dont want to bother with the dr. because they think they can fight off something andsave the expence. Not me Not any more. I go and get check out right away or ant least call and discuss it with him. I will pray for your friend and keep him in my prayers as i also have a friend in the UK who is suffering from the same thing and hopefully will pull through. Infections are nothing to fool around with. Jim Hensen for the Muppets creator died of an infection too. In in daught seek medical help always.
204015
How aids spreads and how the spreading of it can be prevented. This should be taught.\nAlso, what aids is, how it affects the human life. If possible, bringing volunteer patients into the classroom to share their own experiences would probably be effective. I'm not exactly sure about "primary level", though. Probably this should begin at grade 5 or so.
536888
Life? Sure. Given the speed at which bacterial life formed on earth after it had cooled down enough, it seems that life itself is relatively easy to get going and so would be common in the universe.\n\nOn the other hand, even on earth, it took a long time for life to become multi-cellular. Out of about 3.8 billion years that life has been around, it was one-celled for about 3.1 billion years. This suggests that multi-cellular organisms are fairly hard to get going and so are relatively rare.\n\nAs for other *intelligent* life, I think it is rather uncommon. First, is the issue of how long a species lasts once it gets to radio technology (say). Given our own experience, it may be as little as a few hundred to a thousand years. If that is the case, the probabilities of time overlap with other intelligent life becomes fairly small considering the overall age of the universe and speed of the processes in it.\n\nOne basic fact that we have to come to grips with is that other life is not *obviously* seen around us. Given likely expansion rates and rates of technological developement, we would probably become obvious before too much longer (a few thousand years): we would send self-replicating probes into the universe, or do LARGE scale projects (solar system size). Since we don't see this in the universe at large, technologies reaching that level are almost certainly rare. I would be very surprised if there is currently another species with our level of technology or higher in our galaxy.\n\nHowever, the universe is a BIG place. There are a hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe, each with an average of a hundred billion stars. Even if we only look at spiral galaxies (ellipticals have the wrong composition for our form of life, at least), there are enough of them to almost assure at least one highly advanced technology somewhere. However, the distances involved are such that we may never be able to detect them, especially if we die off in a few thousand years).
173328
Viruses are in a nether world. They are neither dead nor alive, and they certainly don't belong to a phylum or a class.
572133
Viruses enter your body from other bodily fluids, whether it be blood or saliva, excrement or vomit.  Viruses generally travel easier in the medium they affect, AIDS is blood-borne, and while it's possible a blood to blood transfer would infect you with a common cold or flu, it's generally spread by saliva. Generally viruses cannot survive for long outside of a host organism.\n\nYour body is under attack by viruses constantly, many times you will receive a virus and not even know because your body is able to fight it off before it can affect you. Besides the obvious, visible or physical symptoms of an infection, a doctor can test for anti-bodies to see if you've been infected. The main reason we give vaccinations is so your body can fight off a weakened or dead virus and learn to make the anti-bodies to defeat it for the next time you are infected by it. However some viruses can remain dormant for long periods of time and even tests cannot show their presence, since the viral load (amount of virus particles) is so low.  \n\nOn a side note, contrary to what was said above virus are NOT organisms. By the definitions of life it is not alive, technically it is an obligate intracellular parasite. This is for a few reasons, but the big ones are that they are not cellular based and they cannot reproduce (by themselves). They do share characteristics with living things, such as the use of DNA/RNA and the ability to evolve.
260668
First of all, it doesn't come from "nasty people who have sex with many people". That girl is such a moron. Anyway, you may become infected by someone who is carrying the virus by having sexual relations with them. This also includes oral sex. You've seen people with cold sores, right? If someone has oral sex with another person who has the disease they may contract oral herpes. Same idea with genital herpes. If someone has herpes they may have active outbreaks or they may never have an outbreak in their life. They may not even know they have the virus but they are still able to pass it on. Even if you use protection there is still a chance to contract the disease. \nThere is no cure for herpes. It lies dormant in your spinal cord until it activates, then it rises to the surface of the skin to the spot where the disease was first contracted. It causes painful red sores that usually last for 1-2 weeks.
145024
I am in the health care field and I would like to tell you that this is ridiculous.  The media is going around scaring people again.  The bird flu has less then a 3 percent chance of ever mutating into a human virus.  It may come here and be something like the west nile virus, killing a few elderly and young.  This reminds me of SARS again, a virus being overblown when in actuality it is almost harmless.  Wake up people and learn things for yourself instead of listening to whatever the tv says.
281882
It appears that the constants are calculated at one condition (dry,wet,etc) whereas the effective is closer to reality.  See\n\nhttp://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/45/16293
290151
This is not a mode of transmission of HIV.In ur case,HIV cannot be transmitted becoz,\n1.The HIV is very sensitive and cannot live long when exposed to air.\n2.Your skin acts as an effective barrier.\nRemember Infection due to HIV occurs through:\n1. Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner. Regular and consistent use of condoms during sexual intercourse means protected sex and minimizes the chances of getting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.\n2. Transfusion of infected blood or blood products.\n3. Use of infected needles as in injecting drug use or in health care settings.\n4. From mother to child.\n\nIf u are still very anxious,get urself tested.
68002
It is possible that some people have more resistance to AIDs than others. This has been conjectured for years. No one really knows for sure, however. And it is all of the populations of Northern Europe that suffered from the plague that might have more resistance, not just people in Iceland.
513077
HIV spreads not only by having unprotected sex, there are other modes also, like, blood transfusion from an unknown source, using needles without sterilising like being done by drug users, etc. But it does not spread by simple touching or hugging or kissing or such harmless activities.\nIn your case, if and when you have sex with many women, how do you propose to ensure that the other party is uninfected? So....so....so......\nBetter safe than sorry!