Viruses

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Viruses-----------------------------------------(3)
What happens when viruses come in contact
with host cells?—(3)
structure of a virus-------------------------------(4)
TYPE OF VIRUSES---------------------------------(5)
Vaccines-----------------------------------------(6)
how does vaccination work?----------------------
(6)
How will vaccines protect us from future
illnesses?----(7)
How vaccines help?-------------------------------(7)
Herd immunity-----------------------------------(8)
Summary---------------------------------------(10)
SORCE------------------------------------------(11)
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Viruses:-
Viruses are tiny bundles of genetic material like DNA,
carried in a viral shell called a capsid which is made up of
proteins. Viruses are parasites, meaning they need a host like
a plant or animal cell in order to live. This makes them strange
little creatures, without a host the virus is inert, floating around
about as alive as a brick wall. Once the virus comes into
contact with a host cell, they will spring into action. They will
infect and take over the cell like pirates attacking a ship.
Viruses cannot metabolize nutrients, move around on their
own, produce or excrete waste or even reproduce unless they
are inside another organisms cells. Viruses have been the
culprits of many human diseases like flu, HIV/AIDS, certain
types of cancer and the common cold. We will be looking in
more detail at AIDS and cancer in subsequent units.
 What happens when viruses come in contact with host cells?
When a virus comes into contact with a host, it will insert itself
into the cell and literally take over. The virus will change how
the cell functions to carry out the functions that they desire
themselves. Once they infect a cell, they burst out killing the
cell and move on to infect the surrounding cells, killing them
too. The virus’s sole purpose is to reproduce many copies of
itself.
A pathogen is a bacterium, virus, parasite or fungus that can
cause disease within the body. Each pathogen is made up of
several subparts, usually unique to that specific pathogen and
the disease it causes. The subpart of a pathogen that causes
the formation of antibodies is called an antigen. The antibodies
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produced in response to the pathogen’s antigen are an
important part of the immune system. You can consider
antibodies as the soldiers in your body’s defense system. Each
antibody, or soldier, in our system is trained to recognize one
specific antigen. We have thousands of different antibodies in
our bodies. When the human body is exposed to an antigen for
the first time, it takes time for the immune system to respond
and produce antibodies specific to that antigen.
structure of a virus
The diagram below depicts the structure of a virus.
One type of virus structure consists of:
 A head~ which contains genetic

material such as DNA.
 A tail~ allows the virus to bind
themselves to the surface of the
host before they inject themselves
into it. The tail can also be
described as an “anchor” for the
virus.
 The tail fibres~ also help in
attachment of the virus to the host
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TYPE OF VIRUSES
Viruses can affect both plants and animals and also bacteria. Below is a table
which shows a list of viruses, the species they affect and the infection they
cause.
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Vaccines:-
Vaccines are medications that are used to stimulate our
body’s immune system to generate a response that will
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protect us from disease. The first vaccination was carried out
by Edward Jenner almost 200 years ago. He noticed that dairy
maids who had had cowpox infection did not succumb to the
deadly smallpox infection that was rampant at the time. To
test his theory, he infected a young boy with cowpox and a
couple of weeks later with smallpox. The boy survived and
therefore was protected from the infection.
how does vaccination work?

When pathogens like bacteria and viruses enter our body they
are recognized by our immune system as foreign an immune
response will be generated to try and eradicate the infection.
Antibodies are proteins that are found in our bodies that target
pathogens and try to neutralize them so that they cannot
cause any harm. The antibody will bind to a region on the
surface of the pathogen, known as an antigen. The antibody
will remember the antigen it targeted and the memory is
stored in our immune systems for any subsequent attack. This
is the basis of how vaccination works. Vaccines can consist of
the following
 Live, but weakened forms of the pathogen/virus
 Killed or inactivated forms of the pathogen/virus
 Purified forms such as proteins
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How will vaccines protect us from future

illnesses?
Vaccines are safe because the viruses used in vaccines have
been severely altered in laboratories by one or several
methods. Scientists do this in several ways. Take for example
the measles and mumps vaccine. Scientists weaken the virus’s
ability to reproduce itself. Normally these viruses cause illness
by reproducing themselves thousands of times in the body.
The virus used in a vaccine may reproduce itself 20 times or
less. This is enough to allow our immune response to generate
an attack against the virus without catching the infection. The
antibodies that are produced from this attack are stored and
will help protect against any future attacks of the virus.
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Another strategy is to deactivate a virus by killing it with a
chemical. Now the virus cannot reproduce at all, yet the
presence of the dead virus in the body still generates a
response by producing antibodies.
How vaccines help?

Vaccines contain weakened or inactive parts of a particular
organism (antigen) that triggers an immune response within
the body. Newer vaccines contain the blueprint for producing
antigens rather than the antigen itself. Regardless of whether
the vaccine is made up of the antigen itself or the blueprint so
that the body will produce the antigen, this weakened version
will not cause the disease in the person receiving the vaccine,
but it will prompt their immune system to respond much as it
would have on its first reaction to the actual pathogen.

Some vaccines require multiple doses, given weeks or months
apart. This is sometimes needed to allow for the production of
long-lived antibodies and development of memory cells. In this
way, the body is trained to fight the specific disease-causing
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organism, building up memory of the pathogen so as to rapidly
fight it if and when exposed in the future.
Herd immunity
When someone is vaccinated, they are very likely to be
protected against the targeted disease. But not everyone can
be vaccinated. People with underlying health conditions that
weaken their immune systems (such as cancer or HIV) or who
have severe allergies to some vaccine components may not be
able to get vaccinated with certain vaccines. These people can
still be protected if they live in and amongst others who are
vaccinated. When a lot of people in a community are
vaccinated the pathogen has a hard time circulating because
most of the people it encounters are immune. So the more that
others are vaccinated, the less likely people who are unable to
be protected by vaccines are at risk of even being exposed to
the harmful pathogens. This is called herd immunity.
This is especially important for those people who not only can’t
be vaccinated but may be more susceptible to the diseases we
vaccinate against. No single vaccine provides 100% protection,
and herd immunity does not provide full protection to those
who cannot safely be vaccinated. But with herd immunity,
these people will have substantial protection, thanks to those
around them being vaccinated.
Vaccinating not only protects yourself, but also protects those

in the community who are unable to be vaccinated. If you are
able to, get vaccinated.
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Summary
Throughout history, humans have successfully developed
vaccines for a number of life-threatening diseases, including
meningitis, tetanus, measles and wild poliovirus.
In the early 1900s, polio was a worldwide disease, paralyzing
hundreds of thousands of people every year. By 1950, two
effective vaccines against the disease had been developed.
But vaccination in some parts of the world was still not
common enough to stop the spread of polio, particularly in
Africa. In the 1980s, a united worldwide effort to eradicate
polio from the planet began. Over many years and several
decades, polio vaccination, using routine immunization visits
and mass vaccination campaigns, has taken place in all
continents. Millions of people, mostly children, have been
vaccinated and in August 2020, the African continent was
certified wild poliovirus free, joining all other parts of the world
except Pakistan and Afghanistan, where polio has not yet been
eradicated.
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Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers
 Viruses and Vaccines

https://onlinelearning.hms.harvard.edu/
 Vaccine Types
https://www.hhs.gov/immunization/basics/types/
index.html

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 What happens when viruses come in contact with host cells?

One type of virus structure consists of:

 A head~ which contains genetic

how does vaccination work?

How will vaccines protect us from future

How vaccines help?

would have on its first reaction to the actual pathogen.

Vaccinating not only protects yourself, but also protects those

 Viruses and Vaccines

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