Year 8 Science - Cells: Virus Vs Bacteria

Although bacteria are the main pathogens involved in community-acquired pneumonia, a significant number of community-acquired pneumonia are caused by viruses, either directly or as part of a co-infection.

Infectious diseases have always been a terrible scourge for humans. The appearance of these plagues, as they were called without distinction, was generally connected to various conditions: asters, climatic changes or religious reasons. The concept of contagious, and then infectious, diseases came slowly. Variolation, i.e. transmission of ‘virulent’ matter to induce a natural disease and the immunity against it, was brought from Constantinople to England by Lady Montague, in 1721.

Influenza. Ebola. The common cold. HIV/AIDS. Measles.

Viruses cause these diseases — and many more. Some are serious. Others, not so much. For better or worse, viruses are part of life.