"So what is a virus?"

Over the past week we have been learning about viruses in our lecture portion of the course.  We discussed their overall morphology and biochemical components, as well as laboratory diagnosis methods for a wide variety of clinically significant viruses.  With this week’s post, I wanted to briefly cover some of this information.

So you may ask:

“So what is a virus?”

“How do they infect us?”

“What kind of treatment can I receive for an infection?”

These are just some of the commonly asked questions about viruses.  Primarily, they are composed of a little protein and one type of genetic material; unlike other organisms which have both RNA and DNA.  This genetic material can be either single strand DNA, double stranded DNA, single strand RNA, or double stranded RNA and is one method of categorization.  Viruses, believe it or not, are considered by some scientist to not even really be alive, since they are incapable of reproducing/replicating without high jacking the cellular components of a host. 

Since there is such a wide array of virus types, there likewise are widely variable methods of infection that are utilized by these pathogens.  This can range from respiratory, skin to skin, body fluids, and even in some cases vectors such as mosquitoes.  Once inside the body, viruses look for specific chemical markers on cells that they have specialized to utilize for their replication.

Especially with viruses, the old proverb “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” is applicable.  The most effective method to prevent the majority of clinically significant viruses is vaccination, because some treatment methods are not effective against them.  Antibiotics work only on cellular pathogens, and are therefore useless.  For some viruses, there are anti-viral medications that can be helpful, but these are usually only developed for more severe diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and influenza; not for every virus.  In many cases, symptoms are treated, and the individual’s immune system will eventually rid itself of the virus.

Diagnosis can be made through several ways, which are best classified as either direct or indirect.  Direct methods look for the virus itself by detecting proteins or genetic material, while indirect look for antibodies developed by the immune system which are specific to antigens of the virus in question.