can viruses be useful for helath or medecine?

Question

can viruses that cause viral diseases in humans and beasts be used in some way for research, for medicine , for any other purpose?

Answer 1

Yes. Have you ever heard of a flu shot? Also, viruses can be used in gene multiplication.

Answer 2

Yes viruses have been long used for such purposes. The bacteriophage virus is one that feeds on bacteria. These viruses are used treat plant and animal diseases that are caused by that particular strains of bacteria.

The Holy river of Ganges has a special property - the water doesn't smell even if it is kept for a long time without preservatives. The reason is a few varieties of bacteriophage in the water that destroys the bacteria and thus the water remains clean and scum free. Certain strains of virus are being modified and being tested against cancerous tissues. Certain viruses are being used to destroy large and menacing rodent populations.

I think this might be of help in understanding the concept of useful viruses

Answer 3

Viruses are beneficial in a way to one's health. Once afflicted with the virus infections, the body in a way develop antibodies to combat it the next time. There's a big difference between illnesses and diseases. Illnesses are short term and in time are treated. We can classify chicken pox here, colds, measles, herpes simplex, or herpes zingles, the dreaded flu, Pneumonia, the West Nile Virus, the Bird Flu, Viral Meningitis etc. Thus a natural immunity is developed. On the other hand, some diseases are long term and may become incurable. Such as Cancer, Aids, HIV,although there is a vaccine for it now. You can live with HIV for a long time.


In Medicine, attenuated and live viruses of many illnesses and diseases are cultured, studied and researched in order to develop vaccines for prevention, and drugs to treat or
cure it. These are impt as they are doing researches on Alzheimer's, Parkinson, Cancer. There are studies made that attribute viruses to be the cause for breast and uterine cancers.

A little health education on viruses and the flu shot. The single best way to prevent the flu is to get a flu vaccination each fall.There are two types of vaccine:

1)The flu shot -an inactivated vaccine containing killed virus that is given with a needle. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.
2)The nasal -spray flu vaccine- a vaccine made with live weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu sometimes called live attenuated influenza vaccine. This is approved for use in healthy people 5 years to 49 yrs of age who are not pregnant. About two weeks, after vaccination, antibodies develop that protect against influenza virus infection. However, Flu vaccines will not protect against influenza-like illnesses caused by other viruses.

Gene therapy is a promising new field of medical research. In gene therapy, researchers, try to supply copies of healthy genes to cells with variant or missing genes, so that the "good genes" will take over..Viruses are often used to carry the healthy genes in to the targetted cells. Because, many viruses can insert their own DNA into the targetted cells.

Answer 4

Yes viruses have been long used for such purposes. The bacteriophage virus is one that feeds on bacteria. These viruses are used treat plant and animal diseases that are caused by that particular strains of bacteria.

Answer 5

Yes. Viruses add their DNA to the host cell. So in theory Viruses could be genetically engineered to modify defective DNA sequences in people with genetic disorders in effected tissues. For example Cancer tissues with unrestricted growth DNA expression could be fixed using Viruses that repair the growth DNA sequences.

Viruses are already being used in genetic engineering and protein synthesis and used in viral immunizations.

Answer 6

Of course! You know what your flu shot is? Dead/dying/cases of the flu virus, used to cure you of ever getting the virus in the future. The body recognizes the dead/dying/etc flu viruses, and kills them off--when a new virus enters the body of the same type, rearin' to go, the body easily recognizes it and kills it off.

BTW Vita, dont respond with "answering..." and then go edit your answer just so you can get the first spot.

Answer 7

Immunizations are made from weakened (also called attenuated) live viruses - like the chickenpox (varicella) or measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. So...they already use viruses (and germs/bacteria) to make immunizations to help prevent viruses and disease. Also the study of viruses to learn how they work with DNA also help prevent outbreaks.