What is the difference between viruses and bacteria?

The main difference between viruses and bacteria is that viruses do not have a cellular structure, whereas bacteria have a cellular structure. Biologically, bacteria can be considered single-celled organisms, while viruses are just a piece of genetic material wrapped in a protein shell, and they are not even living organisms.

First of all, bacteria generally have the general characteristics of cells, such as having a nucleus, cytoplasm, cell wall, and cell membrane. With sufficient nutrients and the right environment, bacteria can survive and thrive. There are many types of bacteria, so they are also very widely distributed, and there are various bacteria in the soil, air, water, and even in the human body.

For example, Escherichia coli, lactic acid bacteria and so on.

In general, different bacteria are beneficial or harmful to humans, and humans can use bacteria to ferment food, extract antibiotics, and decompose garbage to eliminate pollution; But some bacteria are also very harmful to the human body, such as tetanus bacillus, salmonella and so on. People who get sick are generally classified as viral diseases or bacterial diseasesBacteria that are harmful to humans live in the human body and often cause various infections and seriously damage human health.

Speaking of viruses, viruses are a very strange thing, that is, a piece of genetic material (RNA or DNA) that can be replicated and expressed is wrapped around a layer of protein, and its structure is very simple and sci-fi. Viruses live entirely in living cells by parasitism, using various substances from the host to replicate and proliferate themselves, and then have adverse effects on the host.

In other words, viruses cannot carry out metabolic activities on their own and must rely on the host to survive. In the absence of water and nutrients, the virus will stop its life activities and become dormant in the form of crystals, and the virus in the dormant state will remain active at the right temperature, that is, it can be resuscitated, so once the host is found again, the virus will be active again.

Bacteria are cell bodies, and viruses are just a piece of genetic material, so bacteria are much larger in size than viruses. Bacteria can be observed under a light microscope, while viruses must be observed with the help of an electron microscope with a larger magnification.

First, the nature is different.

1. Germs: bacteria and viruses that cause human diseases, collectively referred to as pathogenic bacteria or pathogenic bacteria.

2. Virus: a non-cellular organism with a tiny individual, simple structure, containing only one nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), and must parasitize and proliferate in a replicative manner in living cells.

3. Bacteria: one of the main groups of organisms, belonging to the bacterial domain.

Second, the characteristics are different.

1. Germs: pathogenic microscopic organisms in the body, their bodies are tiny, they enter the human body through a variety of ways, and multiply in the human body, infecting the human body.

2. Viruses: Viruses are extremely small, and most of them can only be seen under an electron microscope.

3. Bacteria: very small and primitive organisms, so their reproduction methods and growth on the medium are quite different from those of higher animal and plant cells.

Viruses are inanimate, whereas bacteria are animate. And viruses can only live on the host, while bacteria can live on the host or through themselves.

Viruses are organisms that do not have a cellular structure, and the genetic material is RNA or DNA, but cells have a cellular structure, and the genetic material is only DNA, and the organisms with a cellular structure are more advanced.

Bacteria belong to prokaryotic cellular microorganisms, and their basic structure from the outside to the inside is the cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. Viruses are the tiniest and simplest class of non-cellular microorganisms, a form of matter that lies somewhere between life and non-life.

Viral infections are inside the human body while bacteria are infections outside the human body, and the best protocols for both of them are different.

Viruses are more terrifying, let's talk about them in detail! Although bacteria do not have a nucleus and only have a nucleolus-like structure, they still have a certain cellular structure i.e., cell wall, cell membrane, and cytoplasm. In addition, based on the structure and composition of the bacterial cell wall, the Gram staining mechanism formed divides the bacteria into Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.

Viruses do not have the cellular structure described above, but are made up of a core-shell that encloses genetic material. Bacteria have a large surface area, are metabolically and diversifying, and grow and multiply rapidly.

During the metabolism of bacteria, different bacteria can produce different metabolites, some of which are harmful to humans. For example, toxins and enzymes produced by bacteria have been linked to their pathogenicity. Some products are beneficial, such as vitamins produced by bacteria; Some products, such as pigments and glycolytic products, are helpful in the differential diagnosis of bacteria.

Viruses and bacteria are not comparable, most viruses and bacteria do not cause disease because of the number and form, but since bacteria are cellular structures that can usually control bacteria, antibiotics and viruses survive in cells through parasitism, and if compared, viruses have higher variability than bacteria and are difficult to **.

Different in size and structure: Bacteria are measured in microns and viruses are measured in nanometers. Bacteria are unicellular and viruses are cellular.

Compared to viruses, bacteria are larger in size and need to be observed with a microscope, whereas viruses are smaller in size and cannot be seen under a microscope, so they need to be observed with an electron microscope with a large magnification. The clinical manifestations of the disease also differ. Diseases caused by bacteria are usually caused by the destruction of the body by bacteria, whereas diseases caused by viruses are mostly caused by immune damage.

The nature of viruses and bacteria, the way they spread, the damage they cause to the human body, the medium of transmission, and the way of transmission are all very different. Viruses are more terrifying because they are highly contagious and have uncontrollable conditions.

The structure of viruses and bacteria is different, the damage to the body is different, the nucleus is different, both are more terrible, and the effects of different viruses and different bacteria are different.

There is an essential difference between viruses and bacteria, because viruses are some harmful things, and they can cause damage to some cells of the human body, which will lead to the death of the human body, but bacteria will only cause infection, and it is very good, so viruses will be more terrifying.

Bacteria or viruses do not have the same route of entry. For example, Staphylococcus aureus, if it is infected in the ** wound, it may cause local purulent symptoms; If the infection is through the bloodstream, it may cause bacteremia or sepsis; If it is contracted through food, it can cause food poisoning.

The number of incursions varies. For most viruses and bacteria, it is the same, if the number of invasions is relatively small, it may be asymptomatic, and if the number of invasions is relatively large, the corresponding disease may be produced.

The state of the human body. If it is a healthy person, it can produce corresponding immune symptoms, such as fever, etc. For some patients or older people, due to the weakening of the body's immune function, such as the loss of immunity in AIDS patients, there may be no response to the pathogen.

Toxins do not have any effect, it is important to understand that the body does not capture toxins, but toxins invade the body. In addition, for most pathogens, there is no simultaneous effect of endotoxins, which are present in gram-negative bacteria, and exotoxins are secreted by gram-positive bacteria and a few gram-negative bacteria.