ELIMINATE ALL VIRUSES?THE GREAT DEBATE

BENEFICIAL USES FOR VIRUSES

• - Gene therapy – using virus mechanics to aid in changing mutated cells• - Cowpox – vaccinations to prevent diseases• - viral symbiosis with gut tract** check facts• - pest control – create viruses to combat pests

NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF VIRUSES

• - illness!!! Death!!! 36, 000 people die annually• Spanish flu – 50-100 mil ppl dead• Transmitted host to host•Mutates quickly to a new strain

THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

• Built to stop pathogens (disease causing microbes)

NON-SPECIFIC DEFENSES

• Skin (keeps pathogens out!)

• Mucous membranes (line areas exposed to outside and trap microbes for disposal)

• Phagocytic White blood cells (engulf invading microbes and destroy them)

• Antigen – a foreign substance that triggers the specific immune response

• Antibody – a protein that is able to bind to specific antigens to mark it for destruction

SPECIFIC DEFENSES

• Lymphocyte white blood cells produce antibodies

• These antibodies attach to the antigen and send a signal that it needs to be destroyed

• A phagocytic white blood cell will then come to engulf the antigen

• Lymphocytes “remember” antigens and are ready with the antibody if it makes its way back into the body

• This gives you immunity to viruses you have already had

HOW TO STOP THE SPREAD OF VIRUSES

GOOD HYGIENE

• Wash your hands

VACCINATIONS

• A injection of a weak form of a virus to produce antibodies to future infections

CONTAINMENT

• Stay home when you are sick!

VIRAL SPECIFICITY

• Specific viruses infect specific organisms• Plant viruses won’t

infect animals, etc.• Because: receptors

on virus have to match receptors on host cell

A STORY THAT WENT VIRAL/5

• Create a story (one page or less) describing a flu virus’s trip through the immune system

• Tell it from the virus’s point of view, perhaps relaying what it sees as it makes its way through the human body

• Include how the virus passes/sees the non-specific immune system and ends with the specific immune system

• You may end the story with the virus or the body winning