Viruses, this evil fifth column

Viruses, these deleterious mutants are constantly trying to attack us. They are stealthy and confusion

The human cell consists of a nucleus that stores deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. Messages from the nucleus of the cell to the different elements of the cell’s cytoplasm are conveyed by a vector – nucleic acid or RNA. These messages allow the cell to reproduce or multiply.

Viruses, when they enter a cell, have the ability to modify or substitute the original RNA of the cell to encode its own message. Once the virus takes over, it sets in motion a highly efficient unbridled multiplication factory of exponential virus production. Many of the viruses often referred to as RIBOVIRUS are experts at this confusion. Coronaviruses are from this family.

Against these invaders the human body often has only one possibility of defense – antibodies. These antibodies are like a KEY IN THE LOCK and are specifically generated to combat each virus.

After contact with the virus the T-cells study the virus, identify it, decode it and start to produce their own soldiers, the antibodies specific to the invader. This defense process often reaches its maximum effectiveness only about two months to eight weeks after the first contact. During this period when defenses are limited, the virus multiplies rapidly, eventually overwhelming the deployment of antibodies in production.

Humans have been repeatedly assaulted by these evil viral invaders and in each of these situations they have succeeded in defeating them 

Whether it is the Spanish flu (a coronavirus), poliomyelitis, smallpox, avian flu or SARS for example, some other viruses can surreptitiously colonize the cells of the human being for years and even for the whole life of the infected person.

For example, after a chicken pox attack at a young age, the virus can remain for the entire life of the carrier and reappear in later life in the form of painful nerve endings as in Shingles.

Other viruses, such as the cold sore virus, can also remain in a human being for life and repeatedly re- occur. Some other viruses, called papillomaviruses, will colonize epidermal cells for life and reappear intermittently on the skin as warts. Probably the stealthiest of these mutants, the AIDS virus, is particularly deleterious. It can remain silent for several years and take advantage of its concealment to weaken and even completely destroy the capacities of the T-lymphocytes, the producers of antibodies, and thus annihilate the only effective line of defense. Eventually there is no more production of assault troops, THE ANTIBODY. In the case of AIDS, the infected person finally dies of complications such as bacterial infection or tuberculosis.

The most abundant viral disease in the world is commonly called influenza. According to the World Health Organisation the seasonal influenza kill 650 000 persons in the world annually. There is little attempt by the body to fight these aggressors, very sophisticated mutants that are constantly changing