4.1.1

Viruses & Bacteria

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Modern Understanding of Disease - Viruses & Bacteria

Viruses are pathogens (micro-organisms that cause disease). They are not bacteria and could not be seen under microscopes by people like Koch and Pasteur.

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The discovery of viruses

  • In 1892, Dmitry Ivanovsky stumbled upon the tobacco mosaic virus in plants. He found that some microbes stayed even after all bacteria microbes were killed.
  • Martinus Beijernick was the first to call these microbes 'viruses' in 1898.
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Different treatments

  • Viruses could not be killed by antibiotics. This meant that a new treatment had to be found and they were approved for use on people.
  • Antiviral drugs can stop viruses from growing in the body, but they were not discovered until a lot later in the 1950s.
  • Antibiotics kill bacteria, but antivirals only stop viruses from growing, they don't kill them. The body (and its immune system) must kill the virus.

Jump to other topics

1Medicine in Medieval England

2The Medical Renaissance in England

3Medicine in 18th & 19th Century Britain

4Medicine in Modern Britain

5Treatment in WW1

6Themes in Medicine

7Some Extra Context (Not Compulsory for Exam)

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