Would ID₅₀ and LD₅₀ Necessarily Be the Same for a Given

question 114

Multiple Choice

Would ID₅₀ and LD₅₀ necessarily be the same for a given virus? Why or why not?

• A) Yes, because the number of viruses that infect 50% of a test population should also kill 50% of that test population.
• B) No, because a virus may be highly infectious (very low ID50 value) but only marginally lethal (very high LD50 value), for example the rhinovirus (common cold virus).
• C) No, because very few viruses are lethal, yet many are highly infectious. The two values should ALWAYS be different.
• D) Yes, because what we're actually describing here is the infection/ killing of individual cells, not of entire organisms. If a cell is infected, it will always be killed.
• E) Yes, because ID₅₀ and LD₅₀ are actually measurements of the same thing: effectiveness of a virus in entering and damaging a host cell.

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Definitions:

Parametric Statistical Methods

Statistical methods that assume the data follows a particular distribution, typically used for hypothesis testing or estimating population parameters.

Nonparametric Statistical Methods

Statistical techniques that do not assume a specific distribution for the data, making them suitable for analysis of ordinal data or data that doesn't meet assumptions of parametric tests.

Distributional Assumptions

The set of assumptions regarding the underlying distribution of the data, which are critical in choosing the appropriate statistical test and interpreting its results accurately.

Rank Assigned

A method of assigning ordinal positions to items that are being compared, such as in the sorting of data.