It
is apparent that nowadays doctors and paramedics can easily fool around
patients with statements "You have a bacterial infection". This is
usually to cut short the long questions that may need the professional
to explain what is ailing the patient. The whole society, therefore,
knows about bacterial infection.
It
is evident that if there is any viral terminology that everyone knows
is HIV/AIDS. It is apparent that if today I told my old mother that you
have a viral infection, she will call my sister, who is a nutritionist,
immediately and report I have told her she has "UKIMWI".
What
is a viral infection? These are infections only caused by viruses.
Viruses are some of the micro-organisms that took scientists relatively a
longer time to understand. They caused a lot of suffering before people
started learning these.
Sadly,
the only better way that viral infections can be dealt with is through
vaccines. Unlike most infections that are curable, viral infections are
slightly different. Scientists agree that there's only one way to deal
with this, do away with the affected organ, or manage it (Let us leave
this topic for another day).
What should worry us now?
Several
methods exist so far about control of viral infections and Viruses.
Summarily, the challenge is that some of these viruses do not die. So
where do these viruses go?
For
easy comprehension, let me put it this way, Viruses exists as either
DNA viruses or RNA Viruses. The most interesting and dangerous part is
for the RNA viruses. This is not the end, there is this part where there
is what we call Positive sense Single-stranded RNA viruses and Negative
Sense Single-stranded RNA Viruses (I have cut short discussion on
classes of viruses. Soon I will tackle that).
Now,
what we call Positive sense ssRNA viruses have something that should
worry you. These viruses do not necessarily require developing to full
virions to cause infections.
At
one stage in our formal education, we must have been taught about the
genetic material. This is what we call DNA in humans. You must have
heard in so many cases including where people are burnt to ashes, that
their genetic material is retrieved and these people identified. This
tells you that it can be a challenge to destroy the genetic material.
Then you are told, this material can cause infection.
So, What Next?
As
the world battles with some of the deadliest viruses in history, it can
be recalled that after the celebrated eradication of polio, more lethal
viruses have continued to strike, one after the other. These viruses
have had one striking feature among them. Most of these viruses are RNA
viruses. Starting from the Polio virus, HIV whose origin has remained
entangled in theories, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and the now new story
Zika virus. All these, I repeat, are RNA viruses. Sadly, Africa has
always been involved. Africa has hosted trials of various virus vaccines
and many discoveries have been made on this very continent.
The
way we destroy these viruses is what may not satisfy any critical
thinker. The end steps we take as a continent cannot guarantee 100%
elimination of this menace. Remembering that genetic material can still
interact, we cannot rule out the fact that these materials can still
interact and create more new organisms, which we shall still call
viruses.
Viruses
can transform anytime to forms that remain infective regardless of the
conditions. Unlike bacteria which can easily be handled by a change in
environments, Viruses are a problem. Viruses can withstand extreme
temperatures. They can withstand extreme conditions. These are viruses.
So, how shall we precisely eliminate this? How shall we?
I don't have an answer yet. Your contribution can be as good as mine.
