Is it true that Virus cannot be killed - it can only be made inactive?

Question

If this is true how did they eradicate virus like small pox

Answer 1

It very much depends on your definition of "living". Most definitions of living do not include viruses, because they can be crystallized and because they don't extract energy from their environments and because they are completely dependent on the cell they infect. So, if they aren't alive, they can't be killed.

Eradicating smallpox required immunization of a huge number of people. Since the virus could no longer be transmitted from one person to another, it was basically eliminated from the population.

Answer 2

viruses can be killed.
actually we destroy millions of them in our own body with our immune system everytime we get over say a dose of flu.

Answer 3

Good answer above.

A favorite "trick" of some teachers is to have students try to "nail down" the definition of "life". Most characteristics (grows, uses energy, propagates) can also be applied to fire (interestingly, viruses do not grow - they spontaneously assemble from pre-formed precursors).

The other important reason why it was possible to eradicate Smallpox is that the virus has no other reservoirs other than humans. So ... when the last human was vaccinated, since the virus could not "hide" anywhere else, we got rid of it (except for a couple of high-security labs). Anyway, the reservoir is important; even if we could vaccinate everybody against influenza virus, since it also exists in wild birds, it will NOT be eradicated.

Food for thought.