Viral Infections

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VIRAL INFECTIONS: THE TRUE WHYS AND WHAT NOWS It all started with a little tickling in my throat. I forged ahead, knowing all too well what that feeling meant, I was getting sick. I convinced myself to just not think about it and it would just go away. This whole time there was an army of alien species amassing in my bloodstream and older cells. They are horrifyingly ugly, like something straight out of H. R. Geiger’s imagination. They writhe and twitch while they are on the hunt for one of your precious body cells. One can almost imagine them squealing to one another "That’s the one fellas, that is the cell we turn into Fort Viri!!". Then they attack, attaching their bodies to the cell’s only defense, it’s outer wall. The cunning viri know this dance all too well, the cell has no chance. All too quickly the viri convince the cell, via complex chemical codes to admit the viri into its life blood, the cytoplasm. Soon they would turn this doomed cell into a virus nursery, churning out countless clones of the virus that converted the original cell. I now must resign myself to the fact that I have somehow come into contact with a virus and it has started to multiply in my body. By now the symptoms are undeniable and all encompassing. I have the flu. Viral infections are caused by a host organism taking in and precipitating the reproduction of viruses. These infections bring with them a miriad of symtoms including, but not restricted to fever, general achiness, increased mucous production, and general sluggishness. This entire chain of events starts when a person comes into contact with a virus. This can happen a number of ways: contact with infected body fluids, contact with the mucous membranes of an infected person, and even inhalation of airborne viri. When one comes into contact with a virus, it wastes no time in making your body it’s new home. It quickly finds a body cell to reproduce in, usually in the body system in which it found access to the body. For example a virus that is inhaled will usually take up residence in the lungs or throat of the host animal. Since the virus has no internal reproductive system, it finds a cell to invade and latches on to it’s cellular membrane. It does this using specialized protein chains, these act as tiny fishing hooks permanently attaching the virus to the host cell.

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