Many get sick every year with viruses and doctors say tough it out. How is there no treatment for it? How is it we always overcome it? Doesn’t it seem possible a super virus will come along kill many?
In: Biology
There’s no easy way to destroy a virus in situ. Viruses aren’t even really alive so you can’t kill them like you can kill a bacteria. Viruses are vulnerable to high heat but you can’t incinerate viruses inside your body.
Bacteria have many chemical pathways that are different from ours, so those are targets for chemical attacks (antibotics). There is not an equivalent for viruses because they’re not alive and have no active biological or chemical processes to interfere with. When a virus is infecting a cell it is using YOUR cells’ internal machinery to make more viruses but we can’t poison all your cell.
There **are** some medications that can help stop **some** viruses. Tamiflu helps with influenza but won’t do anything for other common viruses like rhinoviruses that cause the common cold. Tamiflu also has significant side effects and overuse in the general population would lead drug resistance.
The best way to combat viruses is with immunization of dead or weakened viruses to prime your own immune system to combat viruses, since your white blood cells, with the right antibodies, can eat and destroy viruses in your blood and tissue. But many common viruses mutate too quickly to be vulnerable to this approach, which is why you keep getting colds and flu
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