A reader writes:
hello im currently at college studying beauty therapy. could you tell me what actually is a virus and a bacterial infection is please?
Sure thing. I’m not sure what those have to do with beauty therapy, but then I know nothing about beauty therapy, so here goes:
A virus is basically a kind of molecule that reproduces itself but needs your cells in order to do that. It can’t reproduce on its own, so it invades your cells and forces them to manufacture more of its genetic material so that it can make copies of itself. Some viruses can do that without harming us, but other viruses cause nasty side effects (like death) when they force our cells to reproduce.
Viruses themselves are not cells. In fact, they’re kind of on the border between living and non-living matter, so often people will say that they’re not really alive. They’re more like complex chemicals that will reproduce themselves if they come into contact with your cells.
Medicine is NOT VERY GOOD at fighting viruses (at least, not YET). Most of the time the only thing to do for a person who has a virus is to treat their symptoms, make them as comfortable as possible, and let the virus run its course. That’s why there’s no good cure for the common cold–it’s caused by a virus.
The best defense against a virus is to avoid getting it in the first place (e.g., hygiene, not having intimate contact with people you aren’t married to, etc.). Watch the TV show Monk for additional hints.
A bacterial infection is an infection caused by bacteria. (A viral infection, by contrast, is an infection caused by a virus).
Unlike viruses, bacteria ARE alive. They are tiny little cells that live and move and reproduce on their own (they do the latter by splitting themselves in two as a form of self-cloning).
Bacteria are all over the place and (here’s the good news) SOME OF THEM ARE BENEFICIAL TO US. In fact, you couldn’t digest food properly if you didn’t have beneficial bacteria living in your stomach.
Other bacteria, though, are harmful, and if we get infected with these, we can get sick. Fortunately, medicine is MUCH BETTER at fighting bacteria than it is at fighting viruses. That’s what antibiotics do. They fight bacteria, though they are completely useless against viruses.
(NOTE TO MEDICAL FOLKS: Sorry if I’ve oversimplified anything in this. I’m trying to keep it non-technical.)
Here are some links to learn more about viruses and bacteria, though the articles at the first two links are kind of technical.
BUY STUFFED DOLLS OF VIRUSES AND BACTERIA!
Jimmy,
I’m currently in an engineering class. Could you briefly explain how to build a box girder bridge?
Sorry, couldn’t resist. I just didn’t realize you had so many other talents in addition to being a great Catholic apologist.
After a run in with bacterial Septicemia, I’m all too aware of the nasty ‘death side effect’ that they (bad bugs) can cause (or try to).
***useless piece of information***
Did you know that the mucus that lines the stomach has has to be renewed every two weeks ? Isn’t that just gross. I mean I’m glad it does or my stomach would start to eat itself…which might be a great weight loss aid..but, even so.
And the tooth is the only thing in the body that can’t repair itself.
Ugh, and now it’s time to go and cook…
God Bless.
p.s. I’m trying hard to think of an unfunny connection beween beauty products and bacteria.
p.p.s. Every woman should be aware that she should renew her make up at least every 18 months, especially things like mascara, eyeshadow etc, for this very reason…and if she (a woman) ever has an eye infection she should just chuck out everything and not use them again.
Jimmy, you’re a man of much information!
My son gave his biology teacher the ebola virus last year for Christmas. (the stuffed doll version, that is!)
‘thann
One tale I’ve heard which I’d like confirmation on is that we always have the cold virus but it stays dormant in our sinuses until the sinuses become irritated (primarily by overly dry air). Any truth to this?
Scott
Perhaps viruses are: The Living Dead!!!!
Scott, that’s not true about the cold virus (at least from what I’ve read), but we are constantly infected with many other species of viruses — for example the ones that cause cold sores.
To build on Jimmy’s labelling of viruses as “complex chemicals” it should be added that they are basically pieces of genetic information (either DNA or RNA) with a protein capsule that helps them get around and infect cells.
The thing about them being genetic molecules is some of them can actually integrate themselves into our own DNA (called the lysogenic phase). Then they just hang out for a while, producing products at low levels that our immune systems can handle. Occasionally, though, they pop out of our genome and start causing problems (called the lytic phase). This is what causes cold sores.
The cold, on the other hand, seem to just make you sick as soon as you are exposed, without going through any lysogenic phase.
Obviously, if the cold virus were always hanging out in your system, there would be no protective value in keeping your hands clean, avoiding touching mucous membranes, etc. Such hygienic behavior doesn’t do beans about dry air, but it does help prevent the transmission of viruses from doorknobs and handshakes and the like to the nice moist internal tissues where they like to hang out and do their thing.
Also, if I’m not mistaken, there is no one “cold virus” per se, but rather a great variety (thousands?) of different viruses that cause colds. (I’m not sure, but maybe you get immune to cold viruses just like other viruses, but you can always catch cold again because there’s always other viruses?)
Also, there are always more viruses to catch because they are always mutating.
a virus: It is DNA surrounded by proteins.
Yes, it is a living thing.
here is a test: Is HIV a Virus ?
ans: No, it has never been identified.
How do people test HIV postive ? simple, they just exhibit one of the 66 false positives that normal humans will register if they have a slight illness or even in some cases just being pregnant.
so what is HIV ?
a campaign for population control dressed up as a deadly diease.Population control was rejected by the people of India, Eygpt, Phillipines, and other nations.
Hence AIDS/ HIV which is nothing more than a collapse of the immune system due to unsantiary living or some other activity became the new vehicle to promote population control.
Note- notice two things. 1. We use some bacteria to help us. 2. We’re really good at killing them with chemicals.
That’s why you should always be wary about taking an antibiotic unless you really need it. Natural remedies often work better (olive oil and garlic are two biggies)
Umm, there’s a potential for spreading falsehoods here. LeonardFenney’s statements above are completely untrue.
Viruses can be DNA or RNA. Whether they are alive depends on your definition of life, but most scientists consider them non-living.
The HIV/AIDS virus has been identified and is relatively well characterized.
Just wanted to make sure people didn’t get some wrong ideas from here.
Jimmy you know everything!!! But — HERE’S THE THING – this raises a couple of questions:
1. What would prompt someone to write a question about viruses and bacteria to an Apologist? and
2. What the heck is “beauty therapy”?
There are anti-viral medications available — that is how HIV is treated — but I think the problem is in the huge varieties of viruses and the tendency of the virus to mutate — but don’t quote me on it — I am not an Apologist 🙂
Yes, and the other problem is that viruses are relatively simple, and use a lot of their host’s cellular machinery to do their work for them. Being so simple, it is hard to design a drug that will affect the virus and only the virus without disrupting the host’s normal processes.
The most successful thus far (if I’m not mistaken) are drugs that target the receptors on cell surfaces which the viruses use to gain entrance into the cell.
In fact, the few cases of HIV-immunity which are known are in individuals who do not have genes for the cell-surface receptors which HIV uses to get in.
Yes, you are essentially correct, but you did simplify it alot.
NO! VIRUSES ARE NOT ALIVE! THEY ARE RNA (not DNA!) STRANDS ENCASED IN PROTEIN.
Oh…sorry, they can also be DNA, my bad.
Margaret Heckler, head of HHS is on record as saying in 1984 we are 2 years away from finding a HIV virus and a cure. She was wrong then, and still wrong. There will never be a virus found because HIV is not a Virus, it is a condition that is 100% related to human bahavior. The fact that poor africans are dying like flies in the slums of Kenya has zero to do with HIV or AIDS. But the fact they have no clean water, access to good medicine and live like cattle in open squalor has everything to do with their mortality.
When HIV is called a virus, which any person could catch, it lets the bahaviour off the hook. After all, it becomes no different than Hep C or gonnorehea, which ANY person engaging in recreational sex, just might catch. This article shows clearly that is not the case, but it sells. Ther real threat is not so called HIV, but AZT which kills everyone who takes it since it is a DNA killer.
there is not one case of anyone dying from HIV, nor has any link been made between HIV and AIDS.
but as to the number of persons who have died from AZT, yikes.
This article clears the air.
http://www.culturewars.com/2002/juju.html
Kosh: I agree that viruses aren’t alive (as do most scientists.) There are a few scientific folks out there, though, who say that since viruses have genetic material and reproduce after a fashion, the definition of life should be extended to include them. I disagree. And the DNA/RNA mixup is understandable. They are very confusing little critters (er… molecules) — which explains my grade in my undergrad Virology class.
catholictheologian/LeonardFenney: Changing human behavior will go a long way to stemming HIV/AIDS, but to state that it is not a virus or that the virus hasn’t been found is simply untrue, and any basic research on the matter will prove it.
HIV is not a virus despite a media barrage that affirms it is. Clipping DNA strands together to form to collage and naming that HIV is hardly
defining a virus.
If someone had really discovered the HIV virus isn’t that worth a NOBEL PRIZE ? Who discovered this virus ?
If HIV/ AIDS was truly a virus , would condoms be a effective prevention ? No. why ?
Because a virus is so small it can pass through a condom. And the cat is now out of the bag.
Now, given that information why is the UNAIDS
office of the UN happy to supply Africa with billions of condoms each year ?
well, condoms prevent children from being born but do not stop virus transmission.
The former head of the population control movement let the cat out of the bag in the 1970’s. He told the truth, and in the population control movement you cannot tell the truth.
Population control became a unpopular term in the late 1970’s and as its offices were closing , something appeared on the scene. AIDS. And guess where many of these population control people found new jobs. The CDC.
And the push was on to have the general population use condoms. In africa, we are told virtually every married man visits prostitutes and brings home HIV to the wife.
Of course, the sexual mores of africans are much different than americans. They are far LESS sexually active and prostituion is rare in most countries. In fact, homosexuality is so rare in africa, most countries do not have a name for it.
So the only way to have a effective condom campaign in Africa is to tell the people they
need to use condoms or risk getting HIV.
The only problem for the population control crowd is many african nations are experiencing a population boom. Maybe this is one reason a move is underway to have all these pregnant mothers (who are HIV infected, or so they say ) be given a treatment of some kind.
Dudes, we’re not going to turn this thread into a debate about the origins of AIDS. It’s a simple query about viruses in general. We can deal with the question of the HIV virus another time.
Here’s something else that needs beneficial bacteria: Aquariums! So I thought I’d jump in here and spread the word to anyone who didn’t know and who might be interested in starting an aquarium in the future. The word *needs* to be spread so that it’s common knowledge.
For years, we’ve done things the wrong way: Assemble aquarium kit, throw in decorations, add water, and immediately add a bunch of fish (and we usually add too many fish, and fish who need a bigger tank than we have).
What happens: As their waste and excess food starts to process, ammonia develops. Ever smell that ammonia smell in a litterbox that’s been neglected one day too long? That’s what’s being emitted in aquariums, and it’s highly toxic and burns your fish, and eventually kills them. That’s why some people say, “I just never have any luck with aquariums”.
Ammonia breaks down into nitrite, which is even deadlier.
Eventually, a bacterial column containing two kinds of bacteria develop, which process ammonia, and nitrite, to make the much less dangerous nitrate.
What one should do *before adding fish*, though, is let this bacteria grow for a month or two (depending on tank size) FIRST. You simply introduce something into the tank to rot–fish food, raw shrimp, etc. and monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Using test kits frequently, once you’ve seen ammonia peak and then go to 0, you know you’ve developed the bacteria that processes it. Later, once you see nitrite peak and then go back to 0, you know you’re safe, because you’ve also developed the bacteria that processes nitrite. Then you can add fish without worrying that they’ll poison themselves and die within a month.
Nothing takes care of the last product, nitrate, except for plants and the dreaded algae, but in general you can’t rely on plants to do it unless you go high-tech with especially bright lighting and a virtual forest of fast growing plants, with CO2 injection, special fertilizers, etc. The common hardy, slow-growing plants that thrive in the odd corner of beginners’ tanks shouldn’t be relied on for nitrate removal, although they’re better than nothing.
Fish can tolerate it to a certain extent, but eventually it gets too high. Weekly water changes keep nitrate in check for you. If you lived in your own toilet, wouldn’t you want someone to clean it once in a while? So… Use a siphon to get the dirtiest part–mulm–out of the gravel, and replace with clean water. Most people change about 20% of the water weekly–more if you have especially “dirty” fish (livebearers, goldfish, large angelfish, etc.).
Bacteria is the key here–fishkeeping is just as much about keeping fish as it is about keeping bacteria! It lives in the gravel, on decorations, and especially on filter sponges. Once you have this friendly bacteria in there, you also want to avoid killing it. Keep filter sponges, just rinse them out in old tank water and put them back in–no need to buy new ones unless they fall apart–and then, just replace one of them and keep an old one in for a week before replacing it. Precious bacteria lives in the filter so don’t get “cleaning happy” trying to remove it all. Don’t tear tanks apart to clean everything if you have an algae problem–you’ll kill the bacteria too. If you must tear the tank apart for something else, at least keep your rocks and decorations wet in some buckets while you’re working, to keep the bacteria alive. Don’t use antibiotics in your tank unless you’re sure of the disease and need to treat the whole tank and not just one fish, and be prepared for the tank to “cycle” through ammonia and nitrite peaks again if you do use them (keep changing the water often for the fish’s sake!)