Bacteria and Virus

Bacteria and Virus Facts

Simply put, bacteria and viruses are germs that invade our body and make us sick. These pathogenic microorganisms are so small you need a microscope to see them, and they invade your home and body without notice. Unfortunately, you won't know you have been infected until you feel the symptoms of the sicknesses that these germs cause. Science is proving that hand washing and conventional cleaning is just not enough when it comes to keeping your family healthy, and your home free of these harmful and dangerous invaders. Did you know one sneeze can generate an aerosol of enough cold viruses to infect thousands of people! Did you know the influenza virus evolves into an entirely different strain each year!


What are Bacteria?
There are thousands of species of bacteria. Bacterium are single-cell, living microorganisms that get nutrients from their surrounding environment in order to live, and come in three different shapes, Cocci (round), Bacilli (rod shaped) or Spirilla (spiral shaped). Some bacteria have been found to live in temperatures well below the freezing point, and others can live in temperatures above the boiling point as well. In fact one species of bacteria (Deinococcus radiodurans) is able to withstand exposure to radiation 1,000 times greater than would kill a human being.

Bacteria live in, or on just about everything in the environment including air, water, soil, on door knobs, and on kitchen countertops. Bacteria are able to live directly on one's skin and reproduce both inside and outside of one's body. Bacteria will grow in length, form a new cell wall down the middle and split in half forming two new bacterium. Given the right environment, each new daughter cell is able to reproduce once every twenty minutes, which means that in four hours there could be more that 4,000 new bacterium present (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096). With the ability to replicate within your body at speeds like this, there is no wonder why these germs make humans so ill.

All bacteria species are not necessarily bad for you. Some bacteria found in your digestive track helps your body to extract all the nutrients from the food you eat, while others are used to make vital medicines and vaccines. Though some bacteria prove to be helpful to the human race, others are the causes of horrible sicknesses such as ear infections, strep throat, skin infections, pneumonia, and even death.

What is a Virus?
To truly understand what a virus IS, you need to understand what a virus is NOT. A virus is not a bacterium or an independently living organism. Viruses are incredibly tiny particles that float around the air and sit on things like furniture, door knobs, and remote controls until they come into contact with a living cell. A virus is unable to survive in the absence of another living cell, and they have only one purpose: to reproduce. Viruses will sit inert, on structures in the environment until they come in contact with a living cell, and then they will infect and take over the cell in order to reproduce themselves.


What do Viruses Do?
Viruses exist only to make more viruses, and with the exception of a small number of bacterial viruses that kill bacteria, all viruses are harmful. A virus first enters a host cell by attaching to the cell wall and eventually the virus will pump its DNA or RNA into the host cell to replicate itself, which is called a viral infection. Essentially the DNA or RNA that the virus has injected into the cell has instructions imprinted on it which forces the host cell to stop producing itself, and start to produce viral parts. The healthy host cell will get "taken over" and begin to produce only viral parts which soon form complete viruses. Viruses are able to produce many, many times within a healthy cell because they are so much smaller than the host cells (for example, the polio virus is able to make over one million copies of itself inside a single human intestinal cell).

Once the reproduction is completed and the viruses are mature they will eventually grow and leave, killing the host cell. The new viruses that were released into the body work to find new healthy cells to take over, so they can continue to reproduce. The fact that host cell is destroyed in the process of viral replication is the reason why all viruses are considered harmful.


Do Viruses Mutate?
Yes, and that is why antibiotics don't work against viruses. Many treatments for the "flu" or the common cold, just ease the symptoms, they don't work to kill the virus that is making you sick. Although vaccines have neutralized the effects of some viruses like polio, others viruses like the influenza virus produce mutations so quickly that last year's vaccine for the "flu" won't be effective this year. The influenza virus mutates so quickly the cold you have today could be a completely different strain than the cold you had last month!

Sometimes during viral replication mutations will occur. If the mutation was harmful to the virus, the offspring may no longer be infectious. In some cases however, mutations may not leave the virus completely ineffective. Viruses replicate themselves many thousands of times and even if 500,000 particles are no good 500 might still be infectious. These 500 infectious offspring will be sufficiently different from the parent virus, creating a brand-new strain of virus. Each new strain will render past vaccines useless.



What is the Difference Between Bacteria and a Virus?

Bacteria are much larger than viruses and much more complex.
In fact the biggest virus is only as large as the smallest bacterium. A typical bacterium has a rigid cell wall containing a cell membrane, which holds cytoplasm (water like substance that fills the cell). Within that fluid are chromosomes that hold instructions for making new bacteria and performing a host of other functions.

Viruses are much smaller than bacteria and are measured in millions of a millimeter.
Viruses are much simpler than bacteria and are made up of only nucleic acid, a protein coat, and a spiked envelope. Viruses are unable to live in the absence of a living host cell.

ROUND COMMON BACTERIA
BACTERIA	IMAGE	SICKNESS
Pneumococcus		Pneumococcus is most commonly associated with pneumonia. It can also cause acute sinusitis, meningitis, otitis media, spetic arthritis, osteomyeletis, endocarditis, cellulitis and brain abscess among others.
Streptococcus		Streptocoocus is most commonly associated with strep throat. Streptococcus species are also responsible for many cases of meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, and necrotizing fasciitis which are known as ‘flesh-eating” bacterial infections.
Staphylococcus aureus (STAPH)		Staph aeures is the most common cause of staph infections. The severity of infections vary from minor skin infections (cellulitis, boils, pimple), to abscesses, and even to life threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and endocarditis.
MRSA(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)		MRSA is a specific stain of Staphylococcus aureus that has developed antiboiotic resistance to ALL penicillins, including methicillin. It has also developed antiboitoic resistance to other narrow-spectrum β-lactamase-resistant penicillin antibiotics.
Scarlet Fever	No Image Available	Scarlet fever is an exotoxin-mediated disease caused by a streptococcal infection that has occurred, most often in association with strep throat or impetigo. Scarlet fever is not rheumatic fever, but it may progress into a more serious infection.
Rheumatic Fever	No Image Available	Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease which may develop after a streptococcal infection such as scarlet fever or strep throat, and can eventually involve the heart, skin, joints and even brain.
ROD SHAPED
BACTERIA	IMAGE	SICKNESS
Bacillus anthracis-(Anthrax)		Bacillus anthracis is the bacterium that causes the infectious disease anthrax, which is highly lethal in some forms.
Tuberculosis		Tuberculosis is most commonly associated with infectious diseases within the lungs such as pulmonary TB. It can however also affect the central nervous system, the circulatory system, the lymphatic system, the genitourinary system, bones joints and even one’s skin.
Salmonella		Salmonella is most commonly associated with food borne illnesses like food poisoning. It can also however cause typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever.
E. Coli		E. Coli is most commonly associated with several intestinal and extra-intestinal infections such as urinary tract infections, meningitis, mastitis, peritonitis, Gram-negative pneumonia and septicemia.
Clostridium tetani		Clostridium tetani is the bacterium that causes Tetanus. Tetanus is a bacterium most commonly associated with lock jaw, which is characterized by difficulty swallowing, muscle stiffness and spasms in other parts of the body.
Corynebacterium diphtheria		Corynebacterium diphtheria is the bacterium that causes Diphtheria, which is an upper respiratory tract illness characterized by sore throat, low-grade fever, and a pseudomembrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and nose.
SPIRALS
BACTERIA	IMAGE	SICKNESS
Spirochaete		Spirochaete is the bacterium that causes syphilis, which is a sexually transmitted disease and the signs and symptoms are numerous.
COMMON VIRUSES RNA CONTAINING VIRUSES
VIRUS	IMAGE	INFECITONS
Enterovirus		Causes common cold, and some strains may cause hepatitis A.
Influenza		Causes acute upper respiratory disease, usually accompanied by a fever, flu, common cold.
DNA CONTAINING VIRUSES
VIRUS	IMAGE	INFECTIONS
Adenovirus		Respitory illness or conjunctivitis (pink eye).
Hepatitis B		Acute and chronic liver infections in humans. Symptoms can last for several months in acute infections, and up to life for chronic ones.
Herpes Virus		Herpes has no cure and is a sexual transmitted disease that causes warts.
Papillomavirus		Causes ordinary warts, and some varieties can cause genital war