Ecology 6th Edition by Charles Krebs

Exercise 3

One resolution to emerging human health problems with diseases is to use evolutionary thinking to manage virulence. The suggestion is that with appropriate public health measures and treatment protocols, we could reduce disease and cause the parasites to become less virulent. In this way we could engineer the AIDS virus, for example, to become like the common cold. How might we drive evolution to manage virulence in human diseases? Ebert and Bull (2003) discuss this approach to virulence management.