Introduction to Microbiology

Virology.
 What organisms are considered to be
microbial cells and studied in microbiology

1. Prions (a biochemical anomaly — misfolded proteins)

2. Viruses ((parasitic nucleic acids, intracellular pathogens)

Cellular entity – single cell (prokaryotic or eukaryotic) and multicellular organisms

(Protozoa)
1. BACTERIA
2. FUNGI
3. ALGAE
4. PROTOZOA

Helminths Worms (multicellular)

What is microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, archaea, fungi and
protozoa.
This discipline includes fundamental research on the biochemistry, physiology, cell biology, ecology,
evolution.
Study of Micro-organisms.
Organisms that EXIST as single cells, cell clusters or multicellular organisms (Protozoa) and must be
viewed individually with the aid of a optical or electron microscope.
Virus, Virology
• A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.
• The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-speciality of microbiology.
• Viruses are classified as non-cellular life forms because they contain nucleic acid as a carrier of genetic
information. Unlike living cells and organisms, viruses do not have the ability to grow, divide and metabolize.
We also refer to viruses as obligatory intracellular parasites or parasitic nucleic acids.
• Depending on the type of nucleic acid, viruses are classified into DNA viruses and RNA viruses.
• Although these are non-cellular forms, they have three basic characteristics of life with living cellular forms:
• contain nucleic acid,
• have the ability to actively reproduce in the host cell - multiplication,
• have the ability to transmit genetic information.

• Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky (28 October 1864 – 20 June 1920) was a Russian botanist, the discoverer of
viruses (1892) and one of the founders of virology.
• Ivanovsky studied and investigate a tobacco disease causing great damage to plantations located there at the
time.
• He discovered that both incidents of disease were caused by an extremely minuscule infectious agent,
capable of permeating porcelain Chamberland filters, something which bacteria could never do.
Structure of tobacco mosaic virus: RNA coiled
in a helix of repeating protein sub-units

Thomas Splettstoesser (www.scistyle.com)

Origins
• Regressive hypothesis
• Viruses may have once been small cells that parasitised larger cells.
Over time, genes not required by their parasitism were lost. The
bacteria rickettsia and chlamydia are living cells that, like viruses, can
reproduce only inside host cells.
• This is also called the degeneracy hypothesis or reduction hypothesis.
Origins
• Cellular origin hypothesis
• Some viruses may have evolved from bits of DNA or RNA that
"escaped" from the genes of a larger organism. The escaped DNA
could have come from plasmids (pieces of naked DNA that can move
between cells) or transposons (molecules of DNA that replicate and
move around to different positions within the genes of the cell).
• Once called "jumping genes", transposons are examples of mobile
genetic elements and could be the origin of some viruses. They were
discovered in maize by Barbara McClintock in 1950. This is sometimes
called the vagrancy hypothesis or the escape hypothesis.
Origins
• Co-evolution hypothesis
• This is also called the virus-first hypothesis and proposes that viruses
may have evolved from complex molecules of protein and nucleic acid
at the same time as cells first appeared on Earth and would have
been dependent on cellular life for billions of years.
• Viroids are molecules of RNA that are not classified as viruses
because they lack a protein coat. They have characteristics that are
common to several viruses and are often called subviral agents. In
similar manner, the sputnik virophage is dependent on mimivirus,
which infects the protozoan Acanthamoeba castellanii.
Prions
• Prions are infectious protein molecules that do not contain DNA or RNA.
• In 1982, American physician Stanley Prusiner, in research on the brain of sick sheep and goats,
developed the theory that diseases are caused by a particular type of infectious particles that are
made of proteins and do not contain nucleic acids (ie they do not contain classical genetic
material). He found that they were proteins with a defective (defective) version with a different
shape different from the normal functioning proteins. He called these infectious proteins prions
(from the words protein and infection). Infectious activity is bound to an infectious (defective)
protein. The presence of infectious protein induces its production even in healthy cells. Prions are
the cause of spongiform encephalopathies. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine in 1997 for his research into prions.
•
In humans, the disease referred to as Creutzfeldt causes Jakob's disease. It is the equivalent of
BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). Indigenous tribes in New Guinea have been associated
with ritual cannibalism, a disease called Kuru, affecting natives eating the brains of the deceased.
In addition, diseases caused by prions in humans include Gertsmann-Straussler-Scheinker
syndrome and fatal familial insomnia. In animals, it is mainly scrapie (witness of sheep and goats)
and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease). In human diseases (Creutzfeldt
Jakob's disease, Kuru), clinical manifestations in the first stages included tremor, ataxia, followed
by immobility, dementia and death within 1 year of the onset of symptoms. In histological studies
of the brains of deceased persons, characteristic changes have been observed that mainly affect
the cerebellum area.
Viroids
• Viroids are molecules of RNA that are not classified as viruses
because they lack a protein coat.
• They have characteristics that are common to several viruses and are
often called subviral agents.
• Viroids are important pathogens of plants.
• They do not code for proteins but interact with the host cell and use
the host machinery for their replication.
Virus, Virology
• Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the
most numerous type of biological entity.
• About 5,000 virus species have been described in detail, although
there are millions of types, some unknown.
• As of September 2015, the NCBI Virus genome database has more
than 75,000 complete genome sequences, but there are doubtlessly
many more to be discovered.
• Most virus species have virions too small to be seen with an optical
microscope, about one hundredth the size of most bacteria.
Virus, Virology
• A viral particle, a virion, is a single particle of a virus that is able to infect and
multiply in a host cell. It is characterized mainly by its shape (spherical,
polyhedral).
• Each virion contains a nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) that is embedded in a
protein envelope (capsid) that protects it. It is usually stored in a special
component similar to the core of eukaryotes (known as the core). Some viruses
contain several enzymes needed to begin replication in the host cell.
• The capsid of each virus consists of identical structural units - capsomers.
Capsomers consist of a protein macromolecule or a collection of several identical
protein macromolecules. The term nucleocapsid refers to a complex of viral
nucleic acid and capsids.
Viruses very often have capsids with helical symmetry or icosahedral (cubic)
symmetry because they best protect their genomes.
• An exception is the Poxviridae family, which has brick-shaped capsids and
bacteriophages that have binary symmetry (complex).
Baltimore classification

This classification places viruses into seven groups:

• I: dsDNA viruses (e.g. Adenoviruses, Herpesviruses, Poxviruses)
• II: ssDNA viruses (+ strand or "sense") DNA (e.g. Parvoviruses)
• III: dsRNA viruses (e.g. Reoviruses)
• IV: (+)ssRNA viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA (e.g. Picornaviruses,
Togaviruses)
• V: (−)ssRNA viruses (− strand or antisense) RNA (e.g. Orthomyxoviruses,
Rhabdoviruses)
• VI: ssRNA-RT viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA with DNA intermediate in life-
cycle (e.g. Retroviruses)
• VII: dsDNA-RT viruses DNA with RNA intermediate in life-cycle (e.g.
Hepadnaviruses)
DNA – RNA- protein or RNA – DNA – RNA -
protein
• In most viruses, DNA is transcribed into RNA, and then RNA is translated into
protein.
• However, retroviruses function differently, as their RNA is reverse-transcribed
into DNA, which is integrated into the host cell's genome (when it becomes a
provirus), and then undergoes the usual transcription and translational processes
to express the genes carried by the virus. The information contained in a
retroviral gene is thus used to generate the corresponding protein via the
sequence: RNA → DNA → RNA → polypeptide.
• This extends the fundamental process identified by Francis Crick (one gene-one
peptide) in which the sequence is DNA → RNA → peptide (proteins are made of
one or more polypeptide chains; for example, haemoglobin is a four-chain
peptide).
• Retroviruses are valuable research tools in molecular biology, and they have been
used successfully in gene delivery systems.
Viral Genome
Viral genomes are circular, as in the polyomaviruses, or linear, as in the
adenoviruses.
Genome size varies greatly between species.
The smallest viral genomes—the ssDNA circoviruses, family
Circoviridae—code for only two proteins and have a genome size of
only two kilobases;
The largest viral genomes—the pandoraviruses—have genome sizes of
around two megabases which code for about 2500 proteins.
Virus genes rarely have introns and often are arranged in the genome
so that they overlap.
Viruses
• Viruses display a wide diversity of shapes and sizes, called morphologies. In
general, viruses are much smaller than bacteria. Most viruses that have
been studied have a diameter between 20 and 300 nanometres. Some
filoviruses have a total length of up to 1400 nm; their diameters are only
about 80 nm.
• Most viruses cannot be seen with an optical microscope, so scanning and
transmission electron microscopes are used to visualise them.
• To increase the contrast between viruses and the background, electron-
dense "stains" are used. These are solutions of salts of heavy metals, such
as tungsten, that scatter the electrons from regions covered with the stain.
When virions are coated with stain (positive staining), fine detail is
obscured. Negative staining overcomes this problem by staining the
background only.
Virus particle - virion
• A complete virus particle, known as a virion, consists of nucleic acid surrounded
by a protective coat of protein called a capsid.
• These are formed from identical protein subunits called capsomeres. Viruses can
have a lipid "envelope" derived from the host cell membrane. The capsid is made
from proteins encoded by the viral genome and its shape serves as the basis for
morphological distinction. Virally-coded protein subunits will self-assemble to
form a capsid, in general requiring the presence of the virus genome.
• Complex viruses code for proteins that assist in the construction of their capsid.
Proteins associated with nucleic acid are known as nucleoproteins, and the
association of viral capsid proteins with viral nucleic acid is called a nucleocapsid.
• The capsid and entire virus structure can be mechanically (physically) probed
through atomic force microscopy. In general, there are four main morphological
virus types:
Virus
Helical structure
• These viruses are composed of a single type of capsomere stacked around
a central axis to form a helical structure, which may have a central cavity,
or tube.
• This arrangement results in rod-shaped or filamentous virions which can be
short and highly rigid, or long and very flexible. The genetic material
(typically single-stranded RNA, but ssDNA in some cases) is bound into the
protein helix by interactions between the negatively charged nucleic acid
and positive charges on the protein. Overall, the length of a helical capsid is
related to the length of the nucleic acid contained within it, and the
diameter is dependent on the size and arrangement of capsomeres.
• The well-studied tobacco mosaic virus is an example of a helical virus.
Structure of tobacco mosaic virus: RNA coiled
in a helix of repeating protein sub-units

Thomas Splettstoesser (www.scistyle.com)

Icosahedral symmetry
• Most animal viruses are icosahedral or near-spherical with chiral
icosahedral symmetry. A regular icosahedron is the optimum way of
forming a closed shell from identical sub-units. The minimum number of
identical capsomeres required for each triangular face is 3, which gives 60
for the icosahedron. Many viruses, such as rotavirus, have more than 60
capsomers and appear spherical but they retain this symmetry.
• To achieve this, the capsomeres at the apices are surrounded by five other
capsomeres and are called pentons. Capsomeres on the triangular faces
are surrounded by six others and are called hexons. Hexons are in essence
flat and pentons, which form the 12 vertices, are curved. The same protein
may act as the subunit of both the pentamers and hexamers or they may
be composed of different proteins.
Structure of icosahedral adenovirus. Electron
micrograph of with an illustration to show shape

GrahamColm at English Wikipedia

Envelope
• Some species of virus envelop themselves in a modified form of one
of the cell membranes, either the outer membrane surrounding an
infected host cell or internal membranes such as nuclear membrane
or endoplasmic reticulum, thus gaining an outer lipid bilayer known
as a viral envelope.
• This membrane is studded with proteins coded for by the viral
genome and host genome; the lipid membrane itself and any
carbohydrates present originate entirely from the host.
• The influenza virus and HIV use this strategy. Most enveloped viruses
are dependent on the envelope for their infectivity.
Structure of chickenpox virus. They have a
lipid envelope

Photo Credit: Content Providers(s): CDC/Dr. Erskine Palmer/B.G. Partin - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library
Complex
• These viruses possess a capsid that is neither purely helical nor purely
icosahedral, and that may possess extra structures such as protein
tails or a complex outer wall.
• Some bacteriophages, such as Enterobacteria phage T4, have a
complex structure consisting of an icosahedral head bound to a
helical tail, which may have a hexagonal base plate with protruding
protein tail fibres.
• This tail structure acts like a molecular syringe, attaching to the
bacterial host and then injecting the viral genome into the cell.
Some bacteriophages inject their genomes
into bacterial cells (not to scale)

Thomas Splettstoesser (www.scistyle.com)

Virus reproduction cycle
• Virus reproduction cycle generally takes place in several stages:
1) binding of the virion to the cell surface
2) cell penetration
3) releasing the nucleic acid from the capsid
4) viral nucleic acid replication
5) synthesis of viral proteins
6) assembly, maturation of virions
7) release of virions from the cell (exocytososis process "sprouting").
Replication cycle
The life cycle of viruses differs greatly between species but there are six basic stages in the life cycle of viruses:
1) Attachment is a specific binding between viral capsid proteins and specific receptors on the host cellular surface. This specificity determines the
host range of a virus. For example, HIV infects a limited range of human leucocytes. This is because its surface protein, gp120, specifically interacts
with the CD4 molecule—a chemokine receptor—which is most commonly found on the surface of CD4+ T-Cells. This mechanism has evolved to
favour those viruses that infect only cells in which they are capable of replication. Attachment to the receptor can induce the viral envelope
protein to undergo changes that results in the fusion of viral and cellular membranes, or changes of non-enveloped virus surface proteins that
allow the virus to enter.
2) Penetration follows attachment: Virions enter the host cell through receptor-mediated endocytosis or membrane fusion. This is often called
viral entry. The infection of plant and fungal cells is different from that of animal cells. Plants have a rigid cell wall made of cellulose, and fungi one
of chitin, so most viruses can get inside these cells only after trauma to the cell wall. Nearly all plant viruses (such as tobacco mosaic virus) can
also move directly from cell to cell, in the form of single-stranded nucleoprotein complexes, through pores called plasmodesmata. Bacteria, like
plants, have strong cell walls that a virus must breach to infect the cell. Given that bacterial cell walls are much thinner than plant cell walls due to
their much smaller size, some viruses have evolved mechanisms that inject their genome into the bacterial cell across the cell wall, while the viral
capsid remains outside.
3) Uncoating is a process in which the viral capsid is removed: This may be by degradation by viral enzymes or host enzymes or by simple
dissociation; the end-result is the releasing of the viral genomic nucleic acid.
4) Replication of viruses involves primarily multiplication of the genome. Replication involves synthesis of viral messenger RNA (mRNA) from "early"
genes (with exceptions for positive sense RNA viruses), viral protein synthesis, possible assembly of viral proteins, then viral genome replication
mediated by early or regulatory protein expression. This may be followed, for complex viruses with larger genomes, by one or more further
rounds of mRNA synthesis: "late" gene expression is, in general, of structural or virion proteins.
5) Assembly – Following the structure-mediated self-assembly of the virus particles, some modification of the proteins often occurs. In viruses such
as HIV, this modification (sometimes called maturation) occurs after the virus has been released from the host cell.
6) Release – Viruses can be released from the host cell by lysis, a process that kills the cell by bursting its membrane and cell wall if present: This is a
feature of many bacterial and some animal viruses. Some viruses undergo a lysogenic cycle where the viral genome is incorporated by genetic
recombination into a specific place in the host's chromosome. The viral genome is then known as a "provirus" or, in the case of bacteriophages a
"prophage". Whenever the host divides, the viral genome is also replicated. The viral genome is mostly silent within the host. At some point, the
provirus or prophage may give rise to active virus, which may lyse the host cells. Enveloped viruses (e.g., HIV) typically are released from the host
cell by budding. During this process the virus acquires its envelope, which is a modified piece of the host's plasma or other, internal membrane
A typical virus replication cycle

GrahamColm at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Leptictidium using CommonsHelper.
DNA viruses
• The genome replication of most DNA viruses takes place in the cell's
nucleus.
• If the cell has the appropriate receptor on its surface, these viruses enter
the cell sometimes by direct fusion with the cell membrane (e.g.,
herpesviruses) or—more usually—by receptor-mediated endocytosis.
• Most DNA viruses are entirely dependent on the host cell's DNA and RNA
synthesising machinery, and RNA processing machinery.
• Viruses with larger genomes may encode much of this machinery
themselves.
• In eukaryotes the viral genome must cross the cell's nuclear membrane to
access this machinery, while in bacteria it need only enter the cell.
RNA viruses
• Replication usually takes place in the cytoplasm. RNA viruses can be
placed into four different groups depending on their modes of
replication. The polarity (whether or not it can be used directly by
ribosomes to make proteins) of single-stranded RNA viruses largely
determines the replicative mechanism; the other major criterion is
whether the genetic material is single-stranded or double-stranded.
• All RNA viruses use their own RNA replicase enzymes to create copies
of their genomes.
Reverse transcribing viruses
• Retroviruses
They form a special group of RNA viruses. Their discovery changed the previously used theory of
genetic information transfer (the so-called central dogma of molecular biology, DNA - RNA -
protein). RNA has been found to produce a complementary strand of viral DNA by the reverse
transcription process. The process catalyzes the enzyme reverse transcriptase.
The viral RNA is transcribed by the virus-borne and encoded reverse transcriptase into the single-
stranded DNA (ssDNA). The RNA-DNA complex is formed in the cells. This is followed by
degradation of the RNA strand and its replacement by the DNA strand to form a dsDNA molecule.
This dsDNA is integrated into the chromosome of the host cell and referred to as provirus
(proviral DNA). Viral proteins are synthesized on a viral mRNA matrix that is transcribed from a
proviral dsDNA. Viral RNA molecules formed by transcription of proviral DNA are used as genomic
RNAs in folding new virions. Retroviruses are agents of sarcomas, lymphomas and leukemias in
birds and mammals.
• Retroviruses integrate the DNA produced by reverse transcription into the host genome as a
provirus as a part of the replication process; pararetroviruses do not, although integrated genome
copies of especially plant pararetroviruses can give rise to infectious virus. They are susceptible to
antiviral drugs that inhibit the reverse transcriptase enzyme, e.g. zidovudine and lamivudine. An
example of the first type is HIV, which is a retrovirus. Examples of the second type are the
Hepadnaviridae, which includes Hepatitis B virus.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Translated by Raul654 - Originally from GFDL image Image:Hiv gross german.png

ICTV Classification system
• The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)
developed the current classification system and wrote guidelines that
put a greater weight on certain virus properties to maintain family
uniformity.
• A unified taxonomy (a universal system for classifying viruses) has
been established.
• Only a small part of the total diversity of viruses has been studied.
• As of 2018, 14 orders, 143 families, 64 subfamilies, 846 genera, and
4,958 species of viruses have been defined by the ICTV.
Baltimore classification

This classification places viruses into seven groups:

• I: dsDNA viruses (e.g. Adenoviruses, Herpesviruses, Poxviruses)
• II: ssDNA viruses (+ strand or "sense") DNA (e.g. Parvoviruses)
• III: dsRNA viruses (e.g. Reoviruses)
• IV: (+)ssRNA viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA (e.g. Picornaviruses,
Togaviruses)
• V: (−)ssRNA viruses (− strand or antisense) RNA (e.g. Orthomyxoviruses,
Rhabdoviruses)
• VI: ssRNA-RT viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA with DNA intermediate in life-
cycle (e.g. Retroviruses)
• VII: dsDNA-RT viruses DNA with RNA intermediate in life-cycle (e.g.
Hepadnaviruses)
Overview of the main types of viral infection
and the most notable species involved

"Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 2002-4436. Public Domain
Influenza
Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an
influenza virus. Symptoms can be mild to severe. The most common
symptoms include: high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains,
headache, coughing, and feeling tired. These symptoms typically begin two
days after exposure to the virus and most last less than a week. The cough,
however, may last for more than two weeks.
Possible complications are bronchitis, pneumonia, less frequent are nervous
system involvement or cardiac muscle inflammation.
Influenza virus is enveloped virus, we distinguish three subtypes A, B and C.
Influenza infections in adults are caused by subtypes A and B, type C is the
cause of upper respiratory tract infections in children.
Antiviral drugs such as the neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir, among
others, have been used to treat influenza.
Influenza
• The surface antigens of influenza viruses are hemagglutinin (16 types, H1-H16)
and neuramidase (9 types, N1-N9), are variable and allow differentiation of virus
variants.
• Hemagglutinin binds to susceptible cell receptors and mediates penetration with
subsequent exocytosis of the enveloped virion. Mutations also alter antigenic
properties (this process is called antigenic shift). Subsequently, a new subtype
with the majority of pandemic infection occurs. Also, the exchange between
human and animal viruses (eg pigs) generates new subtypes.
Influenza infection is spread by droplet transmission. It manifests with increased
temperature, headaches, joints and muscles, cold and cough.
• Influenza disease is characterized by a high contagion and a mass incidence of the
disease, characterized as an epidemic or pandemic.
• Influenza viruses can be vaccinated.
Influenza
Larger outbreaks known as
pandemics are less frequent.
In the 20th century, three
influenza pandemics occurred:
Spanish influenza in 1918 (40–
50 million deaths), Asian influenza
in 1957 (two million deaths), and
Hong Kong influenza in 1968 (one
million deaths).
Influenza may also affect other
animals, including pigs, horses,
and birds.
Rabies
• Rabies virus - rabies virus is contagious to all warm-blooded vertebrates, causing most fatal diseases. Rabies
is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals. These symptoms are
followed by one or more of the following symptoms: violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of
water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion
• In nature, the reservoir is mainly canine and feline, bats and primates. In the Czech Republic, the reservoir is
a fox, less often other carnivores, rodents and bats. From the infected animal, the virus is transmitted to
other wild and domestic animals.
• The disease has a long incubation period, which allows the litter of the next generation. The time period
between contracting the disease and the start of symptoms is usually one to three months.
• The virus enters the organism after a bite of an infected animal. Neuronal axons spread through the CNS to
the brain. The time depends on the distance the virus must travel along peripheral nerves to reach the
central nervous system.
• Saliva is excreted before the onset of clinical symptoms. However, it may be shorter or last several months or
years. At the beginning, the disease is manifested by fatigue, irritability, headache, insomnia. They quickly
turn into serious CNS disorders, impaired vegetative function (sweating, salivation) and muscle spasms.
Eventually, muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest occur. Passive vaccination was first introduced by L.
Pasteur. Nowadays, the vaccination of dogs against rabies, fox vaccination, in humans is carried out after
biting an infected animal active immunization.
Hepatitis
• Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people with hepatitis
have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the
skin and whites of the eyes, poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal
pain, and diarrhea.
• Hepatitis is most commonly caused by the viruses hepatitis A, B, C, D, and
E.
• Hepatitis A, B, and D are preventable with immunization.
• Hepatitis A is mainly spread by contaminated food and water.
• Hepatitis B is mainly sexually transmitted, but may also be passed from
mother to baby during pregnancy or childbirth and spread through infected
blood. Hepatitis C is commonly spread through infected blood such as may
occur during needle sharing by intravenous drug users.
Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis A virus is transmitted orofecally.
• Poor hygienic conditions facilitate spreading. Viruses multiply in the
gastrointestinal tract and are excreted in the faeces. Liver swelling
occurs. After about a month the infection recedes.
• Uncomplicated disease does not go into the chronic phase, ends in
healing and man gains lasting immunity.
• Death comes exceptionally, can be vaccinated against the disease.
Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus. The main sources of infection are body
fluids (blood and blood derivatives) and secretions (breast milk, saliva,
semen).
• Nowadays, the infection spreads through sexual intercourse and
contaminated needles of addicts, rarely by passing mother to fetus.
Healthcare professionals, especially dentists, hemodialysis units, and
laboratories that analyze body fluids and secretions may experience
professional infection.
• The disease is manifested by elevated temperature, liver involvement,
jaundice. In a smaller number of patients it has a severe course, in about
5% it goes into a chronic phase with the possibility of liver cirrhosis. The
virus can be vaccinated.
Hepatitis C
• Hepatitis C virus is transmissible by blood and secretions. Nowadays,
blood transfusion, blood derivatives, is already limited.
• Drug addicts pose a risk, infection can occur when the drug is injected
intravenously.
• It causes chronic inflammation of the liver with subsequent liver
cirrhosis and a risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma.
• A vaccine vaccine has not yet been developed.
Ebola virus and Marburg virus
• Ebola virus and Marburg virus are viruses that cause severe
haemorrhagic fever in humans with a lethal course of the disease.
Virions in both cases are long, fibrous.
• The incubation period for both viruses is short 3-10 days. Symptoms
of the disease are fever, vomiting and bleeding into the internal
organs. In approximately 80%, Ebola is a fatal disease.
• Viruses are found in Africa. Ebola virus is known in 4 types - Zaire,
Sudan, Ivory Coast and Reston. Reston has been isolated from Filipino
monkeys and is harmless to humans.
• There are no vaccines against viruses yet.