The most effective virus

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DarkMadMax

Registered Senior Member
What could be the most effective bioengineered virus -e .g 95% lethality at the same time long incubation period with effective transimission mechanism( e.g. by air ).

Is the immunodefficit mechanism would be the most effective one? -as it doesn't cause the death by itself ( like plague, ,smallpox etc. ) which allows long incuabtion period , harder detectability . If it could be combined with transmission by air it probably would have time to infect 90% of earth population and by the time it will be discovered it would be too late.

Is it possible to bioengineer something like this with todays technology ?

I know nothing about biological viuruse though I know about computer ones -better computer viruses use mechanisms to prevent their detection and curing by changing their signatures and patterns with each new infection -that feature is called polymorphism , is it possible to have something like that in biological virus?
 
A hybrid virus with the contagion of smallpox and the pathogenicity of ebola would be the ultimate engineered virus, according to Robin Cook. I doubt if it already exists.
 
that would be similar to AIDS transmission by mosquito. As of now, I don't think so, but it would be really bad if it was. And Inhalatory anthrax is somewhat of what you are describing, but its rarely spread like that naturally. :m:
 
Facial said:
A hybrid virus with the contagion of smallpox and the pathogenicity of ebola would be the ultimate engineered virus, according to Robin Cook. I doubt if it already exists.
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But to be truely effective virus should kill slowly , yet at the same time spread effectively. Thats why I think viruses aimed against immune system are ideal for this. Something like ebola or smallpox would be isolated pretty fast methinks.

I wonder though how can you make them spread by air and if its possible at all.
 
Ebola burns out too fast. But plague would work, but transmission is by fleas, which are similar to air, especially if the fleas live on the person. Insect vectors are similar to air. :m:
 
i think some variation of influenza. anyone remember the 1918 pandemic?

and i think the polymorphism you speak of is mutation in biological viruses. :confused:
 
I think viruses don't really need to kill slowly to be effective. There's already an incubation period for most diseases.

I think of the bubonic plague in the 14th century. I know it wasn't caused by a virus, but this was a disease that killed almost half of Europe really fast, and really effectively.

Sanitation methods account for the prevention of plague, but when you have something extremely contagious like smallpox that's transmitted through the air, then that goes beyond sanitation (that is, outside a laboratory).

Btw smallpox is, in fact, transmitted through the air, which is why it is feared as a bioweapon.

So what I'm saying is that ebola by itself may burn out too fast since it lacks the contagion of smallpox, and smallpox doesn't have a high enough kill percentage like ebola, but a combination of the two would seriously wreak havoc.
 
Facial said:
I think viruses don't really need to kill slowly to be effective. There's already an incubation period for most diseases.
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Well incubation period for less than a month is not long enough - disease simply wont have enough time to spread before first cases are isolated and massive quarantine is eastablsihed.

Point would be to infect 100% of earth population . - Not only diseased should live long enouhg -they also should not look diseased for long time. Sick people are isolated fast. Virus specifically targeted at immune system looks like a very good cover ,as symptoms are hard to detect early.
 
Anyway my question was how hard is to create such virus? Since scinetist seems already can create RNA links and even their own viruses (for all kinds puprose) - just take the best spreading mechanism , combine it with polyomelite mutation and AIDS damaging mechanism . And here we go. Or not?
 
i dunno, seeing as how understanding how to create them would mean we could cure them, I'm not sure about that as of now. My hope is to become an epidemiologist and find a cure for AIDS and cancer and ebola, then become the surgeon general. :m:
 
I'm studying BioInformatics, and at the moment Genetic engineering is more of a "hey, lets do this and see what happens". They can't pick out Characteristics yet. They can isolate it, yes, so that shows some possibility. But it's not like programming a c++ code, at least not yet
 
Ah, good point.

My new proposal : the incubation of HIV + the pathogenicity of EBOLA + the contagion of SMALLPOX !

HIV has a rapid mutation rate, and anywhere from a 1 year to 10 year incubation rate showing absolutely no signs of AIDS. So, my new virus will have the advantages of all three of these. You take the good genes from each of them and combine them to form the perfect virus. Voila. Here you have something that spreads readily by air, has a 99% mortality rate, and incubates for up to 10 frickin years!
 
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