Assertion: pathogen | /r/CapableOf | represent the greatest threat
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text: In this perspective, I argue that improved understanding of the evolution of virulence (defined broadly as the harmfulness of an infection) can make this goal more feasible in two ways: 1) by facilitating identification and blocking of pathogens that represent the greatest threat should they become established in human populations (e.g., Yersinia pestis during the Middle Ages and human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] during recent decades) and 2) by providing methods for inhibiting the emergence of particularly virulent variants of pathogens that are already established in human populations (e.g., the pathogen that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic and virulent, antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus).