Thread:Comments:New drug may treat virtually all viral infections/A Curse in Disguise?/reply (7)

I'd say HIV is very successful. The virus's selfish interest lies in keeping the host alive long enough to spread the virus to others. It does that, and even better, the host may remain unaware of the virus for some time while spreading it; that stealth is important because once the host becomes aware of hosting the virus, the host may behave in ways that don't spread the virus as much. When the host's behavior changes so, it makes that host less valuable to the virus &mdash; so it then doesn't matter so much (to the virus) whether the host dies.