viruses are the smallest common pathogen, they are so small
in fact that many of them actually infect bacteria, and their size and that fact that they are different from other pathogens because they cannot
reproduce on their own, they, the virus can take over the cells they infect and use that
cell’s own processes to create more copies of the virus, the process is called replication, make them very difficult to kill, think Ebola Zaire, Marburg virus, rabies, HIV, smallpox, Hantavirus
pulmonary syndrome (HPS), and in case you forget Influenza is a killer as well, for a fuller list have a look here, these are just a few of the known 15,000
viruses in our planet, enough already with these members of the group I hear you say, what could be worse? finding some more, a lot more!
in a recent investigation, researchers have identified
195,728 viruses under water and were able to classify
them into five different ecological groups, despite the large number of viruses discovered, and the vast
complexity of the world's ocean regions, the team of researchers was able to
split the viruses into five distinct ecological zones – all depths of the
Arctic and the Antarctic, and three distinct depths of the Temperate and
Tropical regions, here is the thing, if there are a number of killers in the 15,000 virsis that scientist know about, how many in the newly discovered 195,728 could do us harm? note to self, swimming in the 5 virus laden oceans of the world is now off my bucket list! photograph, A. Deniaud Garcia/ Fondation Tara Ocean.
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