Viruses - Research Paper Example

There are millions of types of viruses present in the world. A few thousands have been explained and studied in detail. Viruses can survive in severe and extreme conditions of temperature, pressure and atmosphere and hence cannot be easily destroyed or eliminated from the environment. Viruses can be found in almost all environments on earth. Isolated viruses are not living organisms because they cannot reproduce, grow or multiply unless they are present in a human or animal cell. The virus attacks the human, animal or plant cell, takes over the controlling and mechanism of the cell and starts producing products that are harmful for the body.

The infected cell will now produce harmful products instead of its usual products (Mandal 41-76). Viruses are of various shapes but the basic structure of a virus always is composed of three parts. The nucleic acid is the main part of a virus and it is either a DNA or RNA. It is responsible for giving a virus its unique characteristics and helps to reproduce. The nucleic acid is protected by covering made from protein which is called the capsid; its purpose is to protect the nucleic acid from any sort of harm.

The lipid membrane is a layer which is present over the capsid and is meant for protection. However this layer is not necessarily present in all viruses. Viruses can be transferred from organism to organism in different ways. Either the various can enter the body through direct contact with the organism contaminated with the virus. Some flying insects can carry the virus and transfer that virus to other organisms. Insect bites can also lead to a transfer of virus from one body to another. Contaminated food and water can also lead to the transfer of viruses.

Viruses are responsible for a number of diseases like flu, cough, fever, measles, polio, hepatitis, yellow fever, small pox, Human immunodeficiency virus, rabies, influenza, diarrhea, etc. Among these diseases some are easily curable through regular medications and precautions but some of them are extremely difficult to take care of; the treatment is usually very expensive and besides the cost it is usually not sure that the medications will prove beneficial or not. Some of the diseases caused by viruses even do not have a cure and they ultimately lead to the death of the suffering person.

Viruses can also cause certain types of cancer. For some of the diseases caused by viruses of which a proper cure is not present, the people are advised to take particular vaccines in order to keep themselves protected from the viral attack. By the use of vaccines the human body builds up the immune system to fight against any such viral attack and in this way the virus fails to attack the human cell and thus the human remains protected from those diseases which have no proper cure and are considered as life threatening diseases.

The vaccines help develop antibodies in the human so that whenever such viruses are encountered by the human cells they can develop antibodies to fight away the virus. In the earlier times when there were no vaccines many people used to die because of these incurable diseases but with the development of vaccines death rates have considerably reduced due to these diseases. The humans during the starting years of their lives are made to take vaccines against a number of viral diseases that are practically incurable in order to protect