Viruses

WHAT ARE VIRUSES??????

Flu, Covid-19, common cold and measles. What is common between them? They are all caused by VIRUSES. Viruses are microscopic organisms or shall we call them ultramicroscopic?? They cannot be seen with the light microscopes used to see bacteria. You need electron microscopes to see them. Can you imagine how tiny they are? A full stop at the end of this sentence will be able to accommodate crores of them. Viruses hover somewhere between living and non living. Why? Because all living things have both DNA and RNA which non living things do not have but viruses are unique 'living things' which have only one of the nucleic acids, either DNA or RNA.

Viruses can be harmless to humans, while some cause mild diseases such as common cold. Some others can be very deadly to humans, such as the dreaded Ebola virus. We all know about coronavirus now. There are many coronaviruses which can cause mild to severe diseases. The virus which causes COVID - 19 ( Coronavirus Disease 2019) is caused by 2019-nCoV ( Novel Coronavirus). You need different medicines to treat viral diseases than what you require for treating those caused by bacteria. That makes diagnosis of viral diseases so crucial.