Viruses

The term "virus" is derived from the Latin word for poison, or slime. It was originally applied to the noxious stench emanating form swamps that was thought to cause a variety of diseases in the centuries before microbes were discovered and specifically linked to illness. But it was not until almost the end of the nineteenth century that a true virus was proven to be the cause of a disease.

The nature of viruses made them impossible to detect for many years, even after bacteria had been discovered and studied. Not only are viruses too small to be seen with a light microscope, they also cannot be detected through their biological activity, except as it occurs in conjunction with other organisms. In fact, viruses show no traces of biological activity by themselves. Unlike bacteria, they are not living agents in the strictest sense. Viruses are very simple pieces of organic material composed only of nuclei acid, either DNA or RNA, enclosed in a coat of protein made up of simple structural units. (Some viruses also contain carbohydrates and lipids.) They are parasites requiring human, animal, or plant cells to live. The virus replicates by attaching to a cell and injecting its nucleic acid; once inside the cell, the DNA or RNA that contains the virus' genetic information takes over the cell's biological machinery, and the cell begins to manufacture viral proteins rather than its own.