what is a virus?

Answer 1

A virus can be many things.. depends on what virus you are talking about.
Virus aren't supposed to bring good stuff tho.
There are flu viruses.. disease viruses.
There are computer viruses and etc.
None of them are really helpful.. so yea..

Answer 2

A virus is an infectious agent found in all living things. A virus is not a living thing but has qualities of one.(it respondes to the environment, reproduces) Viruses can either be RNA or DNA. The DNA viruses tend not to mutate (chickenpox) so you can usually get them only once. The RNA viruses like the flu mutate alot so you can get them over and over. They need a host to reproduce.

O ya and many people think you can treat viruses with antibiotics but you can't because those are ment for bacteria. You need antiviral medications to treat a virus.

Answer 3

Viruses are a simple form of life--a few genes wrapped in a protective shell. These genes are the instructions for making new viruses. Outside a cell, a virus can't reproduce itself; but once a virus invades a living cell, it turns that cell into a virus factory. In time, thousands of new viruses burst out and go on to invade other cells.
. HIV viruses ,,Rhinovirus - The Common Cold,,Polio Virus,,HIV-Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Viruses and bacteria are two different kinds of germs. Both can invade our bodies and make us sick. However, bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics, but viral infections are very hard to treat.
Bacteria

living cells can make their own food and multiply
separate and different from human cells
easy to develop a drug that kills only bacteria
Virus
not a cell
need to invade a living cell to multiply
lives inside human cells
hard to make a drug that kills viruses and not human cells

Answer 4

A virus is a microscopic organism (a prokaryote) which infects a host in order to reproduce using the host's cells. Viruses differ from bacteria because they have no nucleus and are resistant to antibiotics. They are sensitive to temperature, hence the body raise the temperature in order to fight the virus. The best way to defend yourself is to boost your immune system which plenty of vitamin C.

Answer 5

Virus-[Biol.,Med.] Toxin; An ultra-microscoic, filter passing micro-organism, parasitic within living cells, and of which many forms cause disease in human beings. It is able to replicate only within a living host cell; the individual particle, or elementary body, consists of DNA or RNA, but not both, contained within a protein coat, which may be multilayered .
Animal viruses- viruses that produce disease only in animals.
arbor viruses- (arthropod-borne), a group of viruses including the causative agents of yellow fever, viral encephalitides and certain febrile infections such as dengue, which are transmitted to man by various mosquitoes and ticks.
attenuated virus- one whose pathogenicity has been reduced by serial animal passage or other means.
bacterial virus-one that is capable of producing transmissible lysis of bacteria.
CELO(chicken-embryo lethal orphan) virus- an orphan virus which is lethal for chicken embryos and induces tumors in newborn and weanling hamsters.
Coxsackie virus-one of a heterogenous group of enteroviruses producing in man a disease resembling poliomyelitis, but without paralysis.
ECHO (enteric cytopathogenic human orpphan) virus- an orphan virus isolated from intestines of man, sometimes found in association with aseptic meningitis.
encephalo-myocarditis virus- an arbor virus which causes mild aseptic meningitis and a nonparalytic poliomyelitis-like disease.
enteric virus-enterovirus.
virus fixe- rabies virus of maximum virulence obtained by passage through a series of 25 to 40 rabbits.
Herpes virus.
Latent virus
masked virus-one which ordinarily occurs in a noninfective state and is demonstrable by indirect methods which activate it.
orphan virus- one isolated in tissue culture, but not found specifically associated with any disease.
plant virus-one pathogenic for plants.
street virus- virus obtained from a natural case of rabies.
vaccine virus-the virus of cowpox, used in inoculating against smallpox.

Answer 6

Life, but not as we know it.
Some look like space probes :-)