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The words virus and bacteria are so often mentioned in the same breath that many people think they are the same. Or that they are very similar. But they are very different. In fact, the difference between virus and bacteria is far greater than the difference between, say, a chicken and a man.
Before we look at what are viruses, let's briefly consider what are bacteria... Bacteria are single-cell organisms. They are very basic life forms consisting of just a single cell. They eat and discharge. They move about. And they reproduce by splitting up. One bacteria cell becomes two cells, two become four... this is how bacteria multiply.
As a side note, it should be mentioned also that about 99 percent of bacteria are actually harmless to human beings. In fact, many are beneficial while the rest are neutral - they don't help us but they don't harm us either. Very few types of bacteria are harmful.
So exactly what are viruses? And how are they different from bacteria?
For a start, the average bacteria is at least 100 times bigger than the average virus. That is why I make the analogy between a chicken and a man. The difference in size is about that much. This is not something that many people think about. Just becauses viruses and bacteria are both invisible to the naked eye, many people assume that they are equally small. Not so.
What are viruses? The medical answer
If you ask what are viruses, the medical answer is that, firstly, viruses are disease causing or infectious agents.This is not totally correct. Like bacteria, not all viruses are harmful. And some are harmful only in certain animals, but harmless in other animals. For example, there are bird viruses that will cause the bird flu in birds but not in humans. Or, there may also be bird viruses that are harmles to birds, but harmful once they enter human cells.
Secondly, you will be told that viruses consist of two or three parts:
Also, you might be told that viruses come in different shapes, some simple, some complex. While these are technical descriptions, they don't really help us understand how they cause harm.
Viruses need cell hosts
The really important thing to understand about what are viruses is that viruses need to enter the cell of another organism before they can be active and can reproduce. It may be the cell of a bacteria, plant or animal. Whatever it is, the virus must enter the cell before it can do anything.This is yet another crucial difference between bacteria and viruses. Bacteria can cause harm simply by entering our bodies - the mouth and digestive track, the eyes, the blood, etc. Viruses, however, must enter the cells. If they are merely inside the body, but not in the cells, they remain harmless.
It is very important to understand this and very important to maintain the integrity of your cell membrane structure so that we do not let viruses in. Unfortunately, a lot of the "health advice" given out to people - like drink plenty of water or avoid saturated fats and cholesterol - make the cell membrane structure weaker instead.
Fungi and protozoa
Apart from looking at what are viruses and bacteria, let us also briefly consider what are fungi and protozoa - because these are all said to be the causes of pneumonia. And pneumonia is even more deadly then the flu, since more flu patients die from pneumonia than from the flu.
The science of fungi and protozoa is quite complex and I know little of it. But what's important to note here is that they are even more complex organisms than bacteria. And again much bigger.
The average bacteria ranges in size from 0.2 to 2.0 microns, and that is at least 100 times bigger than the average virus. Protozoa, however, are usually range in size from 10 to 50 microns, but some can grow up to 1 mm. Fungi, on the other hand, range from single-cell organisms about the size of bacteria, to large mushrooms. They are all part of the same family.
Without going into technical details, the point to note is that viruses are very different when compared to bacteria and even more different when compared to fungi and protozoa. And so it is really quite meaningless to say that a disease like pneumonia is caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa... or "unknown causes".
This is why I maintain in my other article about the causes of pneumonia, that pneumonia is NOT an infectious disease but merely a condition in which the lungs have weakened and deteriorated. Click here to read more.