Viruses vs bacteria
In this article we will learn about the differences between viruses and bacteria. Well I want to teach you the difference between viruses and bacteria. Viruses and bacteria are what we would describe as germs and these are the germs that we think about when we think about getting sick and people are often confused between bacteria and viruses but they're actually very different than each other.
They do have some similarities, so let's think about the
similarities first
- They're both microscopic meaning very very small so we need a microscope to see them.
- They both do cause and can cause very severe illness.
- They can cause illness in humans like us and also can cause illness and animals like this little dog.
Here and even plants have bacterial and viral illnesses that
can be problems for them they're going to be different types of viruses and
bacteria that infect the different species but they all can cause a lot of
trouble let's think about some ways that they're different than each other. So
I said that they're both microscopic that's true but they actually are very
different size-wise so bacterial cells are actually very large compared to
viruses.
Bacterial cells can be sometimes 200 times larger than
viruses which is really interesting but again still both microscopic bacterial
cells are very unique and that they are alive. They're individual cells and
they're able to reproduce on their own, so if we call our little M&M a
candy of excuse me a bacterial cell.
This bacterial cell can be produced take one and then you
make two out of that these two would then go on to make four and they're going
to continue to reproduce in this way so they can reproduce on their own and
then they can cause infections and people ,external cells are interesting too because
they actually can be good for us.
We have bacterial cells that live all over our bodies on our
skin there's bacterial cells that live in our intestines are called normal
flora and actually really important they help us to break down food and even
produce vitamins like vitamin K for us. So they can be good too and these are
bacterial cells so they are able to reproduce on their own versus.
viruses are not actually
living, it's interesting that scientists classify them as something between
Lizzie and non-living which is a really interesting place to be but these viruses
the reason we say that they're in between living and non-living is that they
need a host to reproduce. So viruses they can live on door handles and they can
live on hands and again if you shake hands with somebody you can pass a virus to
some baby to sneeze and cough. But once they pass from one person to another
they actually have to get into a cell to reproduce and make more of them.
Now you have a virus
that's invading yourself here's your little virus that's going to infect
our cell so what the virus is actually going to do is attach to particular
cells it's going to take DNA that's inside the virus run that down into your
cell and then what the virus take over the manufacturing equipment inside of
the cell, so inside the cell no more are we producing bacterial cells or any
type of your own proteins but now we're making only viruses so it's essentially
a virus. Factory at this point so it's no longer performing functions for you
then what happens is this thing is going to fill up with viruses so much.
So baby viral particles are going to fill until we get to
the point one bust open and now we have all of these little baby. Viruses
running around and they're going to go and infect another cell in your body so
that's how viral infections spread in your body.
So viruses need a host cell to reproduce that's a major difference
that we have how do we treat viruses and how do we treat bacterial cells.
Viruses typically are
shorter course of illness you're talking between two and ten days depending on
how healthy the person was to start with bacterial illness is typically
typically are longer. You're looking at
more more of a ten day to twelve day course for bacterial infections and then
how do we treat them viruses can be treated only with antivirals, so you can
get those from the doctor but in general the best way to treat a virus is rest
in soup and water and that's essentially it.
Viruses will be taken care of by your immune system if you
rest and baby yourself for a little while versus bacterial infections bacterial
infections are treated by antibiotics. So antibiotics are actually really important
in getting into and busting open those bacterial cells traditionally most colds
and most things that are making you feel bad are viruses.
Some common examples of viruses would be the Rhino virus
which is the common cold that's the upper respiratory infection that most
people get you have influenza which is a different type of virus that causes
more severe fever body aches more all over that you feel that and then
bacterial infections.
you're looking at things like there's a particular type of
bacteria that causes ulcers hylia vector pylori can cause ulcers things that
cause food poisoning. Listeria Salmonella e.coli can cause food poisoning. Those
are bacterial infections when you go to the doctor it's important that you understand
that there are particular tests that can be done to determine do you have a
bacterial infection or do you have a viral infection and the viral infections
can only be treated with rest and hydration antivirals if necessary but
bacterial infections are the ones that require those antibiotics.
Those are some major
differences right we said that they're both microscopic they both can cause
human illness so we need to have good hand-washing good hygiene to make sure
that we don't pass those around.
but again major differences we're talking size-wize bacteria
are very large compared to viruses which are very small and the types of
infections that they actually create are going to be very different as well.
So I hope you got very useful information about virus vs bacteria. You can also see virus vs cell.
2 Comments
Nice article, thank you for sharing the information related to corona.
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Thanks
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