Assignment task:
After reading "The Perfect Plague" and exploring the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's website on antibiotic resistance, share what you have learned regarding infectious disease and human adaptation. A complete response will relate information from your readings (explain which!) to answer at least one of the following:
How do human actions contribute to the spread of infectious disease?
What role does natural selection play in the development, spread, and/or defense against infectious diseases?
Why, if infectious diseases are often deadly to their hosts, have they not been selected against by natural selection? Won't they destroy their habitats (i.e. us) and ultimately kill themselves off?