ANSWERS: 4
  • Who told you viruses were incurable? You've been misled. Bacteriophages have been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They are seen as a possible therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage There are books available on these things. They are not new, except in the U.S. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EDIT: Incorrect information above. Pls disregard. :(
  • Some viruses such as HIV can cause life-long or chronic infections, and the viruses continue to replicate in the body despite the hosts' defence mechanisms. However, viral infections in animals usually cause an immune response, which can completely eliminate a virus. These immune responses can also be produced by vaccines that give lifelong immunity to a viral infection. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but antiviral drugs have been developed to treat some life-threatening infections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_(biology)
  • Some viruses can be partially treated. This is really only possible when the virus is replicating. The main problem is that viruses are just not alive in anywhere the same way as bacteria. They are actually relatively simple things. Usually just a nucleic acid surrounded by a protein shell with maybe a couple of sugars thrown in. This means that there is no biological activity that drugs can target. Viruses don't metabolise so you can't disrupt that to kill them. Bacteria are complex fully living cells with biochemical processes to target. This makes them potentially fully killable. Viruses lack all of these "living" processes so there's nothing to target. When they do replicate, they do it by hijacking the host cell and using the living apparatus of that cell to undergo replication. This means that it is still hard to target them because they're hidden inside your cells.
  • No virus is incurable. Some we just don't know what the cure is yet.

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