Researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska have discovered a virus that can attack human DNA. The attack can be so severe that the person may lose his memory, intelligence and even his learning ability. The virus has been dubbed as a stupid virus and can make a person completely dumb.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska working jointly have located and identified a virus which has been named ATCV-1. Later it was experimented on normal individuals and later on some of the subjects lost a section of their mental capacity.
The research teams were looking into throat microbes when they accidently came across some traces of the virus ATCV-1 found in the DNA samples of humans. The microbes were unknown and formed the basis of a study led by Dr. Robert Yolken from Johns Hopkins and he conducted a virus database search to know more information about the unknown virus.
It was discovered that the ACTV-1 causes infections in the green algae found in the lakes. The virus was never found to infect any humans. The researchers discovered traces of algal virus in the volunteers and screened them. The virus affected about half of the volunteers.
The team found that the subjects affected by the virus performed the visual processing tests poorly as compared to healthy ones. The virus also lowered attention spans and spatial awareness.
