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ahem HIV?!? ahem

...but yeah, you're right with one caveat: the success of a disease depends only on how far it spreads. The _most_ successful "diseases" are the multiple viruses who have completely integrated their genomes with the human genome, and so exist in > 7 billion copies on the earth.

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That's true if you only consider human diseases; I suspect you could find trillions of copies of e coli

...and? Generally, E. coli is not only not lethal, but often serves a role in the human gut as a beneficial partner (i.e. symbiont).

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