What are viruses? How do they spread?

What are viruses? How do they spread? Virus is a really small collection of proteins and genetic material. There's lots and lots of viruses in the world and on that a lot of people get each year is influenza, or flu, that infects about 10-20% of the UK population every year. How does a virus spread? Something like flu-that will spread when people sneeze or cough and the virus spreads from person to person or when they leave infected materials like infected mucus on surfaces. That's why it's really important to wash your hands. There's other viruses that are spread by direct contact when people hug or kiss, and then there's other viruses that are spread by sexual contact such as HIV. PANDEMIC, EPIDEMIC, ENDEMIC: What's the difference? Let's work backwards. An endemic infection is an infection that is present in an area all year round, all the time year to year. So that might be something like chicken pox in the UK, which happens every year. Or, in parts of Africa, malaria is an endemic infection. What is epidemic An epidemic is when you see an increase of cases followed by a peak and then a decrease. So we see an epidemic of flu every year in the UK, when you start to see an increase of cases in the autumn and winter, a peak and then the epidemic subsides. A pandemic is an epidemic that happens all around the world, approximately at the same time. So, in 2009 we had a pandemic of influenza that started in Mexico, and then that epidemic reached around the world and caused a pandemic of flu. How does a Pandemic spread? People will travel around the world, and if it's possible for that infection to be sustained in the places that it reaches, then we'll get a pandemic. What do Vaccines do? So vaccines allow our bodies to see what a virus or a bacteria looks like before we meet it for real. If and when we do meet that virus or that bacteria, our bodies are able to mount a really rapid and strong response. Is the world prepared for a pandemic? The world is more prepared that it's ever been before. And scientists, countries, public health agencies like the WHO work closely together to make sure if there is a new pandemic. #NEWZSPIDER #Viruses #ViralReproduction #LyticCycle #LysogenicCycle #VirusStructure #StructureOfAVirus #VareVirusesAlive #AreAllVirusesBad #VirusCycles #ViralCycles #VirusReplication #HowVirusesReproduce #Influenza #Flu #ViralInfection #IntroductionToViruses Follow NEWZSPIDER on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClgLDdYbxqyNl0mqAgbpx1g Follow NEWZSPIDER on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Newzspider/ Follow NEWZSPIDER on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/newzspider Follow NEWZSPIDER on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/newzspider/ Follow NEWZSPIDER on REDDIT: https://www.reddit.com/user/newzspider