What is the relation between virulence of a virus and its probability of transmission?
Generally, the higher the transmission rate, the higher the virulence of the virus and hence the more likely it is that the host will die quickly. This follows because in viruses with low transmission rates, the host must not die too quickly or the virus has a low chance of finding another host. If transmission rates are high, then selection for more competitive viral strains within a host can lead to increasing virulence.
