• Question: what is the most complex disease you have studied?

    Asked by anon-194337 to Danny on 11 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      The most complex I have learnt about is a virus called cytomegalovirus which we shorten to CMV. Its a really complex disease. It actually will infect most people over their life-time. Its estimated that 50-80% of people will get this virus by the time they are 40 and it then stays with them for life! Should we be worried though? Most people’s immune system will control the virus so most never ever get symptoms, they don’t feel sick because of it…but it is still there!
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      If people have bad immune systems then it can become a problem as the virus can re-awaken and cause flu-like symptoms. We do have antiviral medicines that can help people who do have symptoms.
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      What makes it so complex is its genetic code and its life cycle. It’s built like one type of virus that has DNA as its genetic code but acts like a virus with RNA instead (RNA is like a sister-molecule of DNA, still holds genetic information but is structured differently). This is really unusual.

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