Part one of term paper
Merriam Webster’s Tenth Edition College Dictionary describes virulence as the rapid course, severity, or malignancy of a disease or infection caused by a microorganism [pathogen] to overcome body defenses of the host. Ewald (1) looks at virulence in two spectrums depending upon mortality rates of the infected hosts. The first, analogous ...

Part two of term paper
... of HIV can be quantified by how fast they produce the onset of AIDS. In short, the more virulent strains have greater success in shortening the length of onset of AIDS after contracting HIV (1). The second type of virulence noted by Ewald (1) was in circumstances where contraction of the pathogen did not guarantee death to the host. Most pathogens we are familiar with today fall into the latter category. In this case, virulence of the pathogen can, and is, measured by mortality rates. H ...