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Are Viruses Alive?


Claire.

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Are Viruses Alive?

Viruses are infectious, tiny and nasty. But are they alive?

Not really, although it depends on what your definition of "alive" is, two infectious disease doctors told Live Science. Living beings, such as plants and animals, contain cellular machinery that allows them to self-replicate. In contrast, viruses are free forms of DNA or RNA that can't replicate on their own.

Rather, viruses need to invade a living organism to replicate, said Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles."[Viruses are] packaged RNA or DNA," Yang told Live Science. "They make more copies of themselves by hijacking the machinery of cells to replicate themselves."

Read more: Live Science

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If I remember correctly, the test for life I learned long ago in school was that something had to 1. secrete 2. eat, that is, take in nutrition 3. excrete and 4. reproduce. A virus only does #4 as far as I can tell. That said the criteria for life probably has changed since the dark days of my high school. 

Some viruses are mere bits of RNA, if memory serves, others like Bacteria Phages are quite complex. Are these merely degenerate parasites that have lost the ability to live on their own? I ask this because some parasites like tapeworms have no gut, they absorb their nutrition from the host directly. Male deep sea Anglerfish become little more than a living sperm bank once they attach to the female's body, their circulatory system even fuse as one and they loose, gills, eyes, fins and possible internal organs. 

So, were viruses some primitive parasitic bacteria or other microbe that over time becomes such a successful parasite it no longer needed the basic criteria we associate with life? If not that raises the chicken and egg question. If a virus needs a cell to reproduce, which came first the cell or the virus. It would seem to be the cell since viruses are not free living to my knowledge, so viruses must have come along much later. 

Thoughts?

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They're definitely a different kind of "alive" than is typical. That's what makes them so difficult to be rid of. You can't actually "kill" them. We need to find ways to keep them from latching on and replicating. Whatever we develop has to be constantly changing, because the things mutate. 

Edited by ChaosRose
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 Its been said that people that were described  Antibiotics over the years, never completed the full doses in getting rid of the bug and the bugs just got dormant, stronger producing more different  bugs in evolution.. Two of my grand daughters has this virus now with tiny white bumps, one just on the neck, the other all over her body that have to be burned off , something I`ve never seen before. My old Doc said they use to be able to cure these infections  but not anymore ,super bugs are all out there   

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36 minutes ago, docyabut2 said:

 Its been said that people that were described  Antibiotics over the years, never completed the full doses in getting rid of the bug and the bugs just got dormant, stronger producing more different  bugs in evolution.. Two of my grand daughters has this virus now with tiny white bumps, one just on the neck, the other all over her body that have to be burned off , something I`ve never seen before. My old Doc said they use to be able to cure these infections  but not anymore ,super bugs are all out there   

The "superbugs" you allude to are of the bacterial kind. Misuse/overuse of antibiotics is with regards to bacteria, not a virus.

A virus and a bacteria are very different.

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Source:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/expert-answers/infectious-disease/faq-20058098

-------------------------------------------

What's the difference between a bacterial infection and a viral infection?

Answers from James M. Steckelberg, M.D.

As you might think, bacterial infections are caused by bacteria, and viral infections are caused by viruses. Perhaps the most important distinction between bacteria and viruses is that antibiotic drugs usually kill bacteria, but they aren't effective against viruses.

Bacteria

Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in many different types of environments. Some varieties live in extremes of cold or heat. Others make their home in people's intestines, where they help digest food. Most bacteria cause no harm to people, but there are exceptions.

Viruses

Viruses are even smaller than bacteria and require living hosts — such as people, plants or animals — to multiply. Otherwise, they can't survive. When a virus enters your body, it invades some of your cells and takes over the cell machinery, redirecting it to produce the virus.

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So, the general difference between a bacteria and a virus is this...

A virus actually enters cells, rapes the cellular machinery, diffuses weird proteins for purposes specific to a specific type of virus, and commands the victim cell to reproduce the virus.

Bacteria do NOT enter a cell. They work their harm or good completely outside a cell.

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Thought virus was the hard one to kill, the smart one?  Not the case eh?

Is there any truth to arthritis being bacteria?  The walking dead always give pain pills for it, cripes people can get Tylenol/Aspirin at the local drugstore on the corner!  If that happens they should be   , no questions asked, others out in the hall would be oh another doctor trying to subscribe for pain again, that's the sixth one this week.

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12 hours ago, docyabut2 said:

 Its been said that people that were described  Antibiotics over the years, never completed the full doses in getting rid of the bug and the bugs just got dormant, stronger producing more different  bugs in evolution.. Two of my grand daughters has this virus now with tiny white bumps, one just on the neck, the other all over her body that have to be burned off , something I`ve never seen before. My old Doc said they use to be able to cure these infections  but not anymore ,super bugs are all out there   

That's the story they tell people, but it has more to do with how they've been overcrowding animals and using antibiotics to alleviate the fallout. Then the bacteria become resistant and run off into water sources via manure that washes away. 

Public health advocates are urging industry to go further than the new FDA regulation, which they fear will not do enough to prevent the rise of superbugs.

But hey...everyone wants less regulation, so they will probably be rolling back whatever protection we had. You can thank the current administration for that. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj-r_ubha7SAhUhxoMKHb1MBrgQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fohiovalleyresource.org%2F2017%2F01%2F20%2Fstopping-superbug-a-new-farm-rule-targets-antibiotic-resistance%2F&usg=AFQjCNFPXtWFJPXpGQ5Te_nLuOeIf0OtIg&sig2=jucmUeo4wgO7T625yAj-Jw

 

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On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 9:51 PM, pallidin said:

The "superbugs" you allude to are of the bacterial kind. Misuse/overuse of antibiotics is with regards to bacteria, not a virus.

A virus and a bacteria are very different.

To me there`s no difference both attack the body

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On 2/25/2017 at 10:33 PM, MWoo7 said:

Thought virus was the hard one to kill, the smart one?  Not the case eh?

 Viruses tend to mutate faster and are much more difficult to find a treatment for. 

 Antibiotics were a knock out of the park, but we got lazy with using them and eventually bacteria adapted to them.

On 2/25/2017 at 10:33 PM, MWoo7 said:

Is there any truth to arthritis being bacteria? 

 First time I've heard that. Ive got a genetic based arthritis, so I doubt it. 

On 2/25/2017 at 10:33 PM, MWoo7 said:

The walking dead always give pain pills for it, cripes people can get Tylenol/Aspirin at the local drugstore on the corner!  If that happens they should be   , no questions asked, others out in the hall would be oh another doctor trying to subscribe for pain again, that's the sixth one this week.

The pain medication you can get from a doctor and what you can get over the counter are orders of magnitude different in targeting and effectiveness. And also have problems with addiction and side effects, why they're controled.

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5 hours ago, docyabut2 said:

To me there`s no difference both attack the body

There are helpful bacteria, such as those residing in our gut to aid digestion.

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I recall reading once that viruses often accompany bacteria and hijack the bacteria's ability to reproduce and force it to script the virus's DNA instead. I guess there are many methods but I also recall reading that the bacteria, once hijacked then try to compel the body cells to do the same.

Microbiology is a tad confusing.

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