The COVID-19: Myth busters and Basic Information
The COVID-19: Myth busters and Basic Information
Viruses
First, what is a virus? A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.
When they are not replicating, viruses exist as mere particles, independent in nature, called virions. It is only after they get a host cell that viruses can multiply.
Viruses can infect all life forms, ranging from animals and plants to microorganisms like bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem and are the most numerous type of biological entity.
Viruses have only half of the characteristics to be considered as life forms. Therefore, they are known as "organisms at the edge of life".
It is difficult to make medicines/cures/vaccines for viruses because:
1. They may change their host/vector/carrier.
2. They may change their own formation (mutate genetically).
3. They affect living cells, taking full control over them, so eliminating the virus could mean losing the cell.
4. They can also survive in extreme conditions, hot or cold.
Myth: Antibiotics can affect viruses
Truth: Antibiotics are meant only and only for eliminating bacteria.
Let me illustrate this situation with an example. Let your house be a body, and let yourself be a cell. You have two different people, Bacteria and Viruses, who want to harm you.
Case-1: Bacteria
He enters your house for attacking you, but as soon as you realize something's wrong, you call for help from Antibiotics, and put him out of your house permanently.
Case-2: Viruses
He enters your house like a friendly neighbour, offering to help in your kitchen (controlling cell mechanism) and poisons your food, before you suspect anything or call for help.
As you saw, viruses are more harmful when it comes to dictating our cell mechanisms.
COVID-19
Coronavirus-2019, or COVID-19 is also a virus. This COVID-19 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins. I'm not writing this to tell you about the prevention and cures of COVID-19, but to bust your myths regarding Antibiotics, temperature of virus incubation, survival of the virus, its origin and formation.
COVID-19 is so new and different that as of right now, there are no vaccines, medicines or cures for this disease. It can only be prevented by good hygiene, social distancing, isolation, and awareness.
For information on basic prevention and safety measures, kindly visit:
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Ramona Singh
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