If is not alive, how can we kill it?

Question

If a virus is not living how can antiviral medications (and kleenex tissues!) kill it? What or who determines life anyway? Some guy in a lab coat?

Answer 1

Actually most antiviral viral medications stop or inhibit viral replication, and don't affect the virion structure at all. I don't know what type of anti-virals Kleenex uses (their website isn't big on details), but if it were simply a detergent that broke down proteins it would probably be referred to as anti-microbial instead of anti-viral.

By the way, even the guys in lab coats have lengthy discussions about what the definition of life is. Most virologists consider viruses to be alive.

Answer 2

Your correct it is some guy in a lab coat that determines what life is, but more importantly biologists have agreed (for the most part) that an organism is living if it is made up of cells which reproduce without a host organism and have some process of metabolism. Thus it is the scientific community that defines life (at least in this context.) When someone "kills" a virus it is really another way of saying to break it down. Virii are primarily composed of protein, and many antivirals function primarily to dissassociate and unravel these protein complexes.

Answer 3

A virus can be classified as a parasite. It thrives off of a host and needs that host to live in order to be successful in being transfered into another. It may not have all of the characteristics of a living thing, however in it's own way thrives on...and duh, it's a virus...that's what antiviral medications were invented to do...kill...um...viruses.