Recently, many of you got familiar with the term ‘virus’. But, many people even today do not have good knowledge about viruses. There are many questions in the mind of the people like:
What are viral diseases? and what are their types?
How can viral disease be prevented?
Stay with us in this article and understand about them.
What are viruses?
Before starting, I want to ask you a very basic question: Are viruses living or nonliving? For finding the proper answer for that, it is very important to understand what is living? Organisms are said to be living if they can respond to environmental stimuli, metabolic reactions going on in their body or other properties like growth and reproductions. Viruses are small infections causing agents, which are composed of genetic material like DNA or RNA and they are covered by protein molecules. So, are viruses follow the criteria for living let us have a look:
- These viruses have genetic material which stores information of their genes and also express themselves when needed, so yes! They show the metabolism property.
- These viruses also respond to various environmental factors as they show mutations.
- They can also replicate which show their reproductive capabilities
These all points are not the complete answer but they are the partial answer, as viruses only perform these tasks when it is inside their host body. If you put a virus outside the body of its host then it stays in crystallised form.
Two common virus structures:
There are many viruses out there in the environment, but there are chances you heard some of them like the common cold virus, poliovirus etc. Let us have a better understanding of their structure in coronavirus and bacteriophage:
- Structure of Coronavirus: Like other viruses, they also have a genetic material and protein coating. As they contain long RNA polymers, which are present at the centre surrounded by a protective capsid, with repeated capsid protein called nucleoprotein.
- Bacteriophage Structure: You might see a photo of a bacteriophage, now look at some of its structural details. They are composed of a polyhedral head, which is made of protein 2000 capsomere, which ended up to short collar then helical tails. The genetic material present in this type of virus is dsDNA.
There are many common viruses present in which they can spread around by various means such as infectious droplets which includes Rhinovirus, coronavirus etc. while HIV spread due to sexual contact or contaminated syringes. Some of them can also be spread by an insect bite.
Viral diseases:
Viruses are mostly famous for the diseases they cause in different organisms. A most common type of viral disease is the common cold, which infects the upper respiratory tract (nose and throat)
There are many different types of viral disease such as:
- Respiratory infections: It includes Flu, Adenovirus, SARS-like SARS CoV-2. These are mainly caused by droplet transmission whose symptoms include runny nose, coughing, fever and body pain. There are many more consequences and problems which vary from virus to virus.
- GIT infections: Those viruses which infect the gastrointestinal tract of our body fall in this category. These include Norovirus, Rotavirus, Astrovirus.
Poliovirus & Rabies virus is a type of neurological virus and these mainly affect the neurons and brains of the body.
Like a bacterial disease, viral diseases cannot be treated and they don’t usually respond to the medicine, these can be used for controlling the symptoms and strengthening the immune systems.
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