Question about viruses

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superrific

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I've been laid up all day with a really nasty virus -- some sort of flu, I think. My son had it and it laid him low for a couple of days, and I'm doubtful I am going to be too active tomorrow.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the virus that moves through the family unit, making everyone sick in sequence. But sometimes the viruses last a long time, and sometimes they can be bad but go away quickly -- not just for one person, but for everyone.

Does anyone know what determines that? I'm not talking about differences between completely different diseases -- obviously cancer lasts a lot longer than a cold, because it's a completely different thing. But some colds linger, and some go away quickly. Some stomach viruses are like 8-12 hours; some last for a couple of days.

I'm just curious what determines that. Not sure anyone here would know, but I think we do have some biochem and/or medical researchers who at least have a chance.
 
superrific said:
I've been laid up all day with a really nasty virus -- some sort of flu, I think. My son had it and it laid him low for a couple of days, and I'm doubtful I am going to be too active tomorrow.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the virus that moves through the family unit, making everyone sick in sequence. But sometimes the viruses last a long time, and sometimes they can be bad but go away quickly -- not just for one person, but for everyone.

Does anyone know what determines that? I'm not talking about differences between completely different diseases -- obviously cancer lasts a lot longer than a cold, because it's a completely different thing. But some colds linger, and some go away quickly. Some stomach viruses are like 8-12 hours; some last for a couple of days.

I'm just curious what determines that. Not sure anyone here would know, but I think we do have some biochem and/or medical researchers who at least have a chance.
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Some depends on your immune system, how it reacts to the virus and whether you’ve been exposed to that virus before.

But the type of virus also matters. RNA viruses tend to linger (a lot of respiratory viruses and HIV for example). But that’s not always the case with RNA viruses.

Stuff like HIV is very different than most respiratory viruses. Though the latter do tend to have symptoms that linger longer than stomach viruses, HIV, heroes, chicken pox and some viruses are not transitory — once you have them they never go away.

From there, I’ll leave it to the real experts. I just happen to be married to a microbiologist.
 
Don't know. I was vaxed and got the flu a few days after Christmas, having only gone out once that week, the day after Christmas. Felt awful through about two weeks, coughed heavily for three. My wife then finally succumbed on my day 9, and hit not as hard but every bit as long.
 
nycfan said:
Some depends on your immune system, how it reacts to the virus and whether you’ve been exposed to that virus before.

But the type of virus also matters. RNA viruses tend to linger (a lot of respiratory viruses and HIV for example). But that’s not always the case with RNA viruses.

Stuff like HIV is very different than most respiratory viruses. Though the latter do tend to have symptoms that linger longer than stomach viruses, HIV, heroes, chicken pox and some viruses are not transitory — once you have them they never go away.

From there, I’ll leave it to the real experts. I just happen to be married to a microbiologist.
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You weren't the one I was expecting to hear from, but this is interesting.
 
And to those who have been laid up with long Covid, man fuck that. I feel for you. Seriously. That's messed up.
 
superrific said:
I've been laid up all day with a really nasty virus -- some sort of flu, I think. My son had it and it laid him low for a couple of days, and I'm doubtful I am going to be too active tomorrow.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the virus that moves through the family unit, making everyone sick in sequence. But sometimes the viruses last a long time, and sometimes they can be bad but go away quickly -- not just for one person, but for everyone.

Does anyone know what determines that? I'm not talking about differences between completely different diseases -- obviously cancer lasts a lot longer than a cold, because it's a completely different thing. But some colds linger, and some go away quickly. Some stomach viruses are like 8-12 hours; some last for a couple of days.

I'm just curious what determines that. Not sure anyone here would know, but I think we do have some biochem and/or medical researchers who at least have a chance.
Click to expand...
I don’t get as sick as often or for as long as I used to since I started eating healthier. To summarize quickly, getting a healthy microbiome through probiotic pills but mainly probiotic foods such as yogurt (no sugar added and not low-fat), sauerkraut (garlic flavored on salads (hardly notice it), and Kombucha (low or no added sugar). Also intermittent fasting for roughly 16 hours a day. Been doing this for about 4 years now.
 
nycfan said:
Some depends on your immune system, how it reacts to the virus and whether you’ve been exposed to that virus before.

But the type of virus also matters. RNA viruses tend to linger (a lot of respiratory viruses and HIV for example). But that’s not always the case with RNA viruses.

Stuff like HIV is very different than most respiratory viruses. Though the latter do tend to have symptoms that linger longer than stomach viruses, HIV, heroes, chicken pox and some viruses are not transitory — once you have them they never go away.

From there, I’ll leave it to the real experts. I just happen to be married to a microbiologist.
Click to expand...
This is a good basic summary.

I'd add a few notes...

We essentially judge viruses based on the symptoms we get from them, but symptoms are essentially a combination of the virus and the response of your immune system to the virus. For some viruses, the virus overwhelms your immune system and causes you to have bad symptoms while other viruses ramp up your immune system and the symptoms are more an "overreaction" of your immune system. Similar symptoms, but very different causes for them.

We often lump a lot of different viruses (and bacteria and sometimes parasites) under the same headings. When someone has a "cold", there are technically dozens of different viruses or subtypes of viruses that person could have. The same is true of the "stomach flu". All of the different potential viruses (or bacteria or parasites) create slighty different reactions within the body to create different length and severity of symptoms.

Finally, when we say that "everyone" has a similar reaction to the same virus, what we really mean is that everyone around us has a similar reaction. But that's because everyone around us has often been exposed to the same level to that virus. If you go to different parts of the world, folks there will often not have the same exposure to the subtype of that virus and folks there would typically have worse symptoms and, similarly, if you get a virus that is endemic to that population but don't have their history of exposure, you can have a much worse time of it after contracting said virus. (The same is true of children before they are old enough for vaccines or to have had other exposure to said viruses/bacteria.)

There's a lot more that goes into the details that typically determine how likely a specific virus subtype is to be transmitted, to make you sick, and the severity/length of various symptoms, but that gets into a discussion based on specific subtypes of specific viruses and is seemingly beyond the scope of this discussion (and beyond any expertise I can reasonably claim).
 
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