What’s the difference between viruses and bacteria?

You might be asking me what is this doing in my blog.
Since I'm obsessed about MEDICAL SCIENCE and your health/well being, I'm here to provide people like YOU with some critical information in case you end up in a hospital with 'stupid' doctors who can't diagnose your illness properly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Difference Between Viral and Bacterial Infections.
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What about viruses?

Viruses are different from bacteria in many ways. A bacterium (single bacteria) is a tiny living cell that can reproduce itself. A virus is not a cell and some argue is not even living. A virus is a piece of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) packed inside a protein coat called a capsid. Viruses are much smaller than bacteria and cannot reproduce by themselves. (This is one reason some people do not consider viruses to be living.) Instead, viruses need to infect another cell before they can reproduce. After the virus enters a cell, it actually takes over the cell’s machinery to manufacture new viruses. It then kills the ‘host cell’ by bursting it open so the new virus particles can infect other cells.

Some viral infections are difficult to treat or develop effective medicines for because viruses have an amazing ability to mutate, or change themselves to avoid destruction by the immune system or by antiviral drugs. Only recently have anti-viral drugs been developed to treat viral infections.

What about bacteria?

Bacteria are single-celled organisms that can cause infection in humans. Tuberculosis, or bacterial pneumonia (such as that caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae) are examples of lung disease caused by a bacterial infection. Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics DON'T work on viral infections.

If you are given antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection, it is very important to finish taking all of your medicine as prescribed - even if you feel better before your medicine runs out. This is because stopping your antibiotics before they're through can lead to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, or "super bugs". Drug-resistant bacteria is very difficult to treat.

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