What is the difference between a microbe and a virus

They depend on the host cell for their survival , and remember they are between living and non living. When they are outside the host cell can still survive as crystalline. Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment. Protein coat present instead. Destroys the host cell releasing new viruses. Most viral illnesses last 2 to 10 days. A viral infection may or may not cause a fever.

Visible only under Electron Microscope. However, a particular virus may be able to destroy brain tumors. But note that bacteria is technically the plural form of the singular bacterium.

You can blame that on Latin. You might need to use bacterium when discussing the specific kind of bacteria that causes a disease, such as Yersinia pestis , which causes the plague.

Bacteria is first recorded in English around — Bacterium is older, evidenced by — Remember how we mentioned that bacteria come in three shapes? Sphere-shaped bacteria are also referred to as coccus cocci in the plural; again, thanks Latin.

You may have encountered coccus in streptococcus , which can cause strep throat. As we noted in the intro, a pathogen is an agent that can cause a disease, especially a virus or bacterium. Some fungi and algae can be pathogenic, too. Viruses cause infection , and those infections very often result in disease. Bacteria can sometimes cause infectious disease, too, but a great deal of bacteria are completely harmless or even beneficial. Another word for a microorganism is a microbe.

However, microbe is often used specifically to refer to pathogenic disease-causing bacteria. And because viruses are microscopic and infectious, they are also sometimes referred to as microbes. An everyday term for microbes is germs. Both vaccines and antibiotics are used to treat infectious diseases. There are vaccines that work against both viruses and bacterias.

Antibiotics , however, only work against bacteria and other microorganisms. Researchers debate whether a virus is even "alive. By itself, a virus can accomplish nothing—it needs to enter a living thing to perform its only function, which is to replicate.

When a virus gets inside a human body, it can hijack a person's cellular machinery to produce clones of itself, overtaking more cells and continuing to reproduce. When the virus reproduces faster than the immune system can control it, it begins to destroy cells and harm the body. Viruses are also the smallest germ, making them generally the easiest to contract—they're so tiny they can spread through the air in a cough or a sneeze. Some viruses also are spread by mosquitoes or through bodily fluid.

Since each virus is very different, no one drug exists to attack whichever virus is in your body. Vaccines give preemptive protection from certain viruses by training the body's immune system to recognize and attack a specific virus. Common forms: Bacteria cause food poisoning, strep throat and urinary tract infections , as well as infections such as tuberculosis.

Bacteria are bigger and more complex than viruses, though they can still spread through the air. A bacterium is a single cell, and it can live and reproduce almost anywhere on its own: in soil, in water and in our bodies.

For the most part, we live peacefully with bacteria—the colonies in our guts are helpful to us and strengthen our immune system. But like viruses, bacteria can also harm us by replicating quickly in our bodies, killing cells.

Some bacteria also produce toxins which can kill cells and cause an outsized, damaging immune reaction. Broad-spectrum antibiotics were developed to kill bacteria in our bodies and in the food supply by inhibiting their growth. But bacteria are extremely adaptive and can quickly evolve to evade antibiotics. Bacteria share their antibiotic-resistant genes with each other, meaning more strains generate resistance to the drugs we use. Common forms: Fungi are responsible for causing conditions such as yeast infections , valley fever and meningitis.