Paul W. Ewald

Paul W. Ewald (born ) is an American evolutionary biologist, specializing in the evolutionary ecology of parasitism, evolutionary medicine, agonistic behavior, and pollination biology. He is the author of Evolution of Infectious Disease and Plague Time: The New Germ Theory of Disease (2002), and is currently director of the program in Evolutionary Medicine at the Biology Department of the University of Louisville.

Ewald is known for his theories on the evolution of virulence and his theory that many common diseases of unknown origin are likely the result of chronic low-level infections from viruses, bacteria or protozoa. Ewald contended with the conventional wisdom that a "well-adapted parasite is a benign parasite," pointing out that this idea relies on group selection, and instead suggested that low virulence is only selected for if the pathogen relies on host mobility for transmission.

Ideas Ewald asserts, along with a growing body of studies, that many common diseases of unknown origin are likely the result of chronic low-level infections from viruses, bacteria or protozoa. Plague Time: The New Germ Theory of Disease (2002)

Articles "Transmission modes and the evolution of virulence" (1991) "The Evolution of Virulence: A Unifying Link between Parasitology and Ecology" (1995) "Guarding Against the MostDangerous Emerging Pathogens: Insights from Evolutionary Biology" (1996) "Vaccines as evolutionary tools: The virulence-antigen strategy" (1996) in Concepts in Vaccine Development "Alternative Transmission Modes and the Evolution of Virulence" (2002) in Adaptive Dynamics of Infectious Diseases "Virulence Management in Humans" (2002) in Adaptive Dynamics of Infectious Diseases Other publications by Paul Ewald on PubMed.