2024-01-20 19:16:58
Virus Et bacteria they are omnipresent in our lives. Not just for infectious diseases: for example, it is estimated that 100,000 billion bacteria live in our body and help us carry out a large number of functions. These are extremely important microorganisms for us, for better or worse, and yet we often find them confuse them or consider them within a single category. Rather, they are very different organisms: let’s see the differences between one and the other.
The differences between viruses and bacteria
The most important difference is that Viruses are not universally considered alivealthough there is no doubt that bacteria are life forms. More precisely, bacteria are prokaryotessimple unicellular organisms composed of a single cell without a nucleus well defined by the rest of the cell.
Therefore, viruses do not have all the characteristics common to all living things. Especially, they cannot reproduce independently: to do this, it needs a host organism, without which it cannot survive for long. Bacteria, on the other hand, reproduce without using another living being (they do so asexually, for example). binary fission) and can survive for a relatively long time outside of a host organism.
Also, viruses they have no internal organelles capable of carrying out specific tasks, as is the case for all living cells. They are essentially composed of a protein capsid and of genetic material (RNA or DNA) it contains, which contains the information necessary to make the capsid.
Are viruses and bacteria “good” or “bad”?
Of all known bacteria, only1% it’s actually dangerous for humans. The majority of bacteria that coexist peacefully with humans are found in the urinary tract, gastrointestinal tract, in the oral cavity and on the skin. They are called eubacteria. residents and they are part of the microbiota, that is to say the set of all the micro-organisms which coexist in our body without causing any damage. The one commonly called intestinal florafor example, is precisely our microbiota in our intestine, essential for digestion processes and defense against other pathogens.
Bacteria that have negative consequences for humans are those that produce toxins (like botulism or tetanus) or those that accidentally enter where they should not, although they are part of the resident flora.
There are approximately 200 species of viruses pathogenic to humans. In the 2022the virus species officially recognized by the ICTV (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses) numbered around 10,000. This means a percentage of 2%. More or less, viruses and pathogenic bacteria are equivalent in terms of percentage.
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