Bacteria or Viruses are tiny organisms that occur almost everywhere in the world. They can infect animals, plants, fungi, and even bacteria.
Sometimes a virus can cause a disease and even kill it. Some viral infections do not cause significant reactions.
The virus may also have one effect on one type of body, but may have a different effect on another. This explains how the virus that affects a cat may not affect a dog.
Bacteria vary in severity. They contain genetic material, RNA or DNA, surrounded by a protein coat, lipid (fat), or glycoprotein. Bacteria cannot reproduce outside the center, so they are classified as parasitic.
They are considered to be the largest living organisms on earth.
Fast facts on Viruses
Bacteria are organisms that can reproduce without the holding cell.
They are considered to be the largest living organisms on earth.
Infectious diseases include rabies, herpes, and Ebola.
There is no cure for the virus, but vaccination can prevent it from spreading.
What are germs?
Almost every living thing on Earth contains bacteria.
Before entering the cell, viruses exist in a way known as virions.
At this stage, they are about 100 in size and contain two or three distinct components:
genetic material, either DNA or RNA
a protein coat, or capsid, that protects genetic information
A lipid envelope is sometimes located around a protein coat where the virus is outside the cell
Bacteria do not have a ribosome, so they cannot make proteins. This gives them confidence in their host. It is the only type of microorganism that can reproduce without the holding cell.
After contact with the host cell, the virus will insert genes into the host and take over the functions of the host.
After infecting a cell, the virus continues to reproduce, but it produces more viral proteins and genes instead of standard cellular products.
This is the process that detects viruses through bacterial differentiation.
Viruses have different shapes and sizes, and they can be classified according to their nature.
This could be:
Helical: The mosaic virus has a helix shape.
Icosahedral viruses, near-circle viruses: Many animal viruses like this.
Envelope: Some germs cover a modified portion of the cell membrane, forming a protective lipid envelope. These include the flu virus and HIV.
Other formations are possible, including independent positions involving both helical and icosahedral types.
Sources
Viruses do not leave traces of residues, so it is difficult to track them over time. Molecular mechanisms are used to compare the DNA with the RNA of viruses and to find out more about their origin.
Three competing theories try to explain the origin of the virus.
Depressive, or degenerative stress: Bacteria begin as independent organisms that become insects. In time, they destroyed genes that did not help them to cripple them, and they relied completely on the cells in which they lived.
Progression, or escape from the hypothesis: Viruses from DNA or RNA fragments that “escaped” from large genes. In this way, they gain the ability to stand on their own and move between cells.
Virus-first hypothesis: Bacteria from complex nucleic acids and proteins may be before or simultaneously with the original cells that appeared on Earth, billions of years ago
Transfers
The virus is only there to reproduce. When it breeds, its offspring spread to new cells and to new distributors.
The structure of the virus affects its ability to spread.
Viruses can be passed from person to person, and from mother to child during pregnancy or childbirth.
They can be spread through:
touch
spitting, coughing, or sneezing
sexual contact
contaminated food or water
insects that carry from one person to another
Some germs can stay in an object for a while, so if a person touches an infected object on their hands, the next person can pick up the virus by touching the same thing. The object is known as a fomite.
As the virus replicates in the body, it begins to affect the host. After a period known as incubation period, symptoms may begin to show.
What happens when germs mutate?
When a virus spreads, it can carry part of its host DNA to another cell or body.
When the virus enters the host's DNA, it can affect the genetic code by moving through a chromosome or to a new chromosome.
This can have long-term consequences for a person. In humans, it can explain the development of hemophilia and muscular dystrophy.
This interaction with the host DNA can also cause mutations.
Some viruses affect only one species of bird. If a virus that normally touches birds infects humans, and if it picks up human DNA, this could produce a new strain of the virus that could have a profound effect on humans in the future.
That is why scientists are concerned about rare viruses that spread from animals to humans.
Bacterial infections
Bacteria cause many human diseases.
These include:
smallpox
common cold and different types of flu
measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and pneumonia
hepatitis
herpes and cold sores
polio
rabies
Ebola and Hanta Influenza
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS
Acute Respiratory Disease (SARS)
dengue fever, Zika, and Epstein-Barr
Some viruses, such as the human papilloma virus (HPV), can lead to cancer.
What are friendly germs?
Just as there are friendly bacteria in our gut that help us digest food, humans can also carry friendly bacteria that help protect harmful bacteria, including Escherichia coli (E. coli).
Antimicrobial resistance
When the immune system detects a virus, it begins to react, allowing cells to survive the attack.
A process called RNA disruption reduces the genetic material of a virus.
The immune system produces special antibodies that can bind to germs, making them less infectious. The body sends T cells to eradicate the virus.
Many viral infections create a protective response to the immune system, but viruses such as HIV and neurotropic viruses have ways of fleeing the immune system.
Neurotropic bacteria infect nerve cells. They suffer from diseases such as polio, rabies, measles, and measles.
They can affect the formation of the central nervous system (CNS) with delayed and continuous effects that can be severe.
Drug treatment
Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics, but the infection requires early injections or anti-inflammatory drugs.
In some cases, the only treatment available is to provide relief from symptoms.
Antiretroviral drugs have been developed mainly as a result of the AIDS epidemic. These drugs do not destroy the pathogen, but they inhibit its growth and slow the progression of the disease.
Antivirals are available to treat infections with herpes simplex virus, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, shingles and chicken pox.
Goals
Vaccination is usually the cheapest and most effective way to prevent infection. Some vaccines have been effective in eliminating diseases, such as smallpox.
Vaccines contain:
a weaker type of virus
A viral protein called antigen, which stimulates the body to build antibodies that will fight future infections with the same virus
viruses are reduced live, such as poliomyelitis vaccination
Live diluted vaccines have the potential to cause the first disease in people with weakened immune systems.
Currently, there are vaccines for polio, measles, mumps, and rubella, among others. The widespread use of these vaccines has greatly reduced their prevalence.
Two doses of the measles vaccine, for example, provide 97 percent protection against the disease.
The measles vaccine has achieved a 99 percent reduction in measles cases in the United States (U.S.). In the event of an outbreak, it usually affects uninvolved people.
Some people choose not to vaccinate their children, and because more people around them vaccinate themselves, the risk of getting measles is low.
However, if less than 92 to 95 percent of people receive the vaccine, the community may lose "their immune defenses," and the disease could spread. The risk of disease is greatly increased.
In the words of the CDC:
"Antivaxxers help breathe new life into old diseases."
This can also affect people who are at risk of not being able to get a vaccine for some reason, such as the immune system.
Infections are usually resolved without treatment, but medications can reduce symptoms such as pain, fever, and cough.