Questions tagged [virus]
For questions about how viruses influence your health. General questions about viruses are off-topic but might be asked on Biology Stack Exchange; for questions about computer viruses, try Super User or Security Stack Exchange.
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Will bleach kill Vesicle-Cloaked Murine Norovirus Clusters?
Referencing the following article. But there is no mention of bleach specifically so I am wondering if simply cleaning the surface with bleach would do the trick? Or the article is also refering to ...
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Why the FDA-approved drug label for sofosbuvir mentions "Without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis" as indication?
SOVALDI is a hepatitis C virus (HCV) nucleotide analog NS5B polymerase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of:
- Adult patients with genotype 1, 2, 3 or 4 chronic hepatitis C virus
(...
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What is the principle behind PCR/NAAT test, in the context of HIV, especially compared to antigen/antibody test?
So here's my limited understanding of how viral infections work.
Some virus enters the body and causes an infection. The virus then begins to replicate itself. It takes some time for there to be ...
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Why should the hepatitis B infection last more than six months to be regarded as chronic?
"People who test positive for the hepatitis B virus for more than six months (after their first blood test result) are diagnosed as having a chronic infection. This means their immune system was ...
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What determines whether an influenza virus causes the flu or a cold?
It's mentioned in many places, such as Mäkelä et al. (1998) that Influenza viruses are among the many viruses that cause the Common Cold (other viruses include Adenoviruses, Rhinoviruses, ...
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How long will rabies viruses remain alive in human body after an infected person receive the full series of vaccinations and treatment? [closed]
Will the rabies viruses eventually be exterminated from an infected individual after the full vaccination/treatment series? Otherwise will it remain in the human body forever despite vaccination?
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Has there been any medical studies as to whether drinking a 'Hot Toddy' can help to ward off or to help heal someone who has COVID-19? [closed]
I am curious to know if there has been any medical studies that have been conducted to ascertain if drinking a 'Hot Toddy' every day will decrease the odds of someone being infected by the COVID-19 ...
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Help interpreting PCR lab results [closed]
Started isolating after my brother, who I live with tested positive, and four days later I was also testing positive (making it likely he transmitted it to me). I did a PCR test and the lab returned ...
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What are the benefits of making animal viruses capable of infecting humans?
If you take an animal virus that doesn't affect the humans and you change it so it can infect humans, what is the benefit from achieving that? Other than maybe creating a potential bio-weapon
On ...
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Are there differences in symptoms with different viruses that cause the common cold?
A recent XKCD comic proposed a humorous future pastime in which virus connoisseurs review and contrast the symptoms of different common-cold cases caused by different viruses, with the implication ...
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Will the COVID-19 virus ever stop mutating into new variants? [closed]
I am curious to know if it has been discussed within the medical community as to whether the COVID-19 virus will ever stop mutating into new variants, and if it has been discussed, what is the ...
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If there is such thing as a senescent cell is there such thing as a senescent virus?
I think this might be a dumb question but since there is such thing as a senescent cell when during cell division, the cell is supposed to die but does not and causes problems for the human body. ...
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Can someone have an allergic reaction to a virus?
My understanding of allergies is that they are more or less immune responses to non-pathogenic substances. The definition on MedicineNet more or less agrees with this.
While I don't have any known ...
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What is the recommended interval for HPV vaccines such as Gardasil 9 for women and men up to age 45?
In October 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration announced it had expanded the approved age for the HPV vaccine up to age 45 for women and men. In June 2019, a key advisory committee for the US ...
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Relationship between Th1 and Th2 and their cross-regulation (+ understanding what cross-regulation means)
Apologies, biology is not my area of expertise but I do have an interest in it.
I "know" that Th1 and Th2 cross-regulate but I'm not sure what that means... Could it mean that if one ...
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What is the state of transmissible vaccines?
I was thinking about viral gain of function research -- and firebugs playing with matches -- when it hit me: if a highly contagious, but harmless version were engineered it could outcompete more ...
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Do mutations occur while growing virus for preparing inactivated viral vaccine?
The development of mutations in virus is reported to happen during replication, especially for an mRNA type virus like SARS-COV-2
Viruses that encode their genome in RNA, such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV and
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Why don't we have mDNA vaccines?
There are two differences between as vector virus vaccines and mRNA vaccines.
One uses Adenovirus and the other uses Nano Lipid Particle(NLP) to deliver the gene material.
One has DNA for the ...
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When speaking of vaccine efficacy (for COVID-19, or other), is immune response or efficacy really being measured? [duplicate]
I've been performing many web searches using combinations of the words "vaccine", "vaccination", "COVID-19", "coronavirus", "efficacy", and "...
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Is there evidence that vaccine-related blood clots could be due to injection technique?
Recently, Danish health authorities including Denmark's SSI issued new guidelines for intramascular vaccination to be done with aspiration, in case some of the vaccine-induced blood clot cases are due ...
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Is there a viral disease which causes weak symptoms initially but then results in significant problems in the long-term?
It is often claimed that even though COVID is a very inconsequential disease for people under the age of 16, it is still dangerous to let them get infected as there might be unknown long-term problems ...
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Why should/shouldn't one fear the long-term health effects of the Covid vaccines?
I'm aware that some people don't want to take a vaccine for Covid-19, and in fact some countries have suspended rollout of some vaccines due to some young people getting blood clots. Also some people ...
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Are many viruses actually good for us?... maybe even essential to our survival?
We know that a very large proportion of bacteria are essential to our good health. Every other day we see press release about the microbiome, and its multitude of health implications. Is there ...
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How can you have Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in your body, but not in your throat? [closed]
From this paper:
Prevalence and concordance of oral and genital HPV in women positive for cervical HPV infection and in their sexual stable partners: An Italian screening study
HPV was detected in 84%...
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Why wouldn't the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines be equally effective?
Based on what I have read, the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines all work by training the immune system to recognize the spike protein on the surface of the ...
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How are two-dose vaccine schedules developed?
How are vaccination schedules determined for multi-dose vaccines? That is, are several different schedules tested in an early-phase trial? Or do the developers of a vaccine choose a schedule (based on ...
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Do partial lockdown/social-distancing measures lead to more contagious and more deadly (Covid) virus mutations? [closed]
Reduction in social contact, without full restriction of social contact, creates an environment where the 'success' of a virus depends more on how infectious it is and less on how good it is at ...
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How durable is a human immunity to an adenovirus (at least specific serotypes)?
There are few SARS-Cov-2 vaccines that use adenovirus vectors as vehicles (human's Ad5, Ad26, chimps' ChAdOx1, probably something else). A side effect of such a vaccine is that an inoculated organism ...
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Can we become infected with a virus that reaches our body in a bacterium?
I read that bacteria can be infected by viruses. Are there viruses that affect both organisms (bacteria and humans)? Is it possible to get a virus from a bacterial infection (the bacteria is the ...
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Is the code from the mRNA vaccine executed by the cells as a one-off? [closed]
Is the code from the mRNA vaccine executed by the cell that has taken it up as a one-off or does the cell produce the spike proteins endlessly (like a programming loop) until the cell is killed by the ...
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How can vaccines be effective against respiratory viruses when it is the innate immune system that is the primary response to such pathogens?
I don't understand how vaccines can be thought to be effective against respiratory viruses. We have influenza "vaccines" and now the new mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. However, my ...
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Is there any infection that targets/found in specifically the nape of the neck?
Is there any infection(s) of the nape caused by a foreign body (bacterial, viral, fungal, etc)? I mean a foreign body infection found or originating primarily or solely in the nape.
I know some ENT ...
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Could the COVID-19 vaccine adversely impact healthy protein reception?
I'm not a health expert, just trying to understand possible long-term side effects of the vaccine, so if my terminology and thinking is off, feel free to correct.
The prominent vaccines right now are ...
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For fighting COVID19, Why we give the body the RNA and not give the body the protien itself? [duplicate]
If I understand things correctly the popular COVID 19 vaccine gives the body RNA that teaches the body cells to create a protein that looks like the virus. And then the body learns to fight against it....
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How can "new viruses" exist? [closed]
Background: I have no background in medical sciences, and this is something I've been thinking about since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic; please ELI5 your answer if you can. Thanks!
We estimate ...
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Nasal spray or oral spray against airborne viruses
I'm seeing different approaches to try protect/alleviate against airborne viruses (e.g. HRV). Let's take some examples:
Enzymatica ColdZyme - oral spray
P&G Vicks First Defense - nasal spray
...
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How do mRNA vaccines work and what are their advantages over traditional vaccines?
How do mRNA vaccines work?
To my intuitive understanding, for an mRNA vaccine to work, the mRNAs injected into the patient need to first enter a cell and get translated into proteins. Those proteins ...
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COVID-19 Variants
I have been looking at this "new variant" of the virus which causes COVID-19 and the British Medical Journal has said
What do we know about this new SARS-CoV-2 variant?
It’s been snappily ...
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Is it possible to increase viral load and COVID-19 disease severity through subsequent infectious doses? [closed]
There is potentially a causal chain leading from high initial infectious dose to high viral load to high disease severity for COVID-19. See, for example, evidence surveyed here.
However, once someone ...
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Given that reinfection is possible with the flu viruses, why didn't the 1918 flu pandemic last forever?
We know that reinfection is possible with the seasonal flu and one could surmise that it was also possible with the 1918 flu strain. But if reinfection is possible and immunity to the flu doesn't last ...
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What makes "chickenpox parties" recommended?
Prior to the availability of the chickenpox vaccine in the mid-90s, I recall the prevailing medical recommendation was to expose children to the virus at "chickenpox parties" with other kids ...
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UK - Sweden Covid-19 Comparison
I compared Covid-19 data on the 17th of October 2020, using this source: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
UK population = 66650000
Uk cases = 708297
UK deaths = 43669
66650000 / 708297 = 1 ...
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Are lockdowns good or bad? What is the scientific consensus, if any? [closed]
I thought doctors support lockdown measures and populist politicians oppose them, but then this "Barrington Declaration" cropped up and I don't know what to think now. Are lockdowns good or ...
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Are there already statistics about the spread of common viral diseases in the Covid-19 pandemic era?
Are there already public statistics regarding the spread of other viral diseases since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the application of mandatory protection rules (e.g. protection masks, ...
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Which HPV types are detectable by the immune system to remove it from body?
Some resources (like WHO) says that HPV can be cleared by the immune system as the following.
WHO
There are many types of HPV, and many do not cause problems. HPV infections usually clear up without ...
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Would a vaccine made for humans work on animals who can get the same virus?
Recently it has been reported some dogs and cats getting covid-19. This doesnt seem to be so common I suppose, since we only hear about a few cases but I'm assuming they can transmit the virus anyway. ...
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How long does it take for the COVID-19 antibody to disappear?
I saw a news article says; 90 days after the infection with ncov19, several patients had no detectable antibodies in their bloodstream. This seems to be one of their evidence that immunity against ...
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Is it possible to remove HPV from the body by strengthening the immune system?
I saw some content which says HPV can be removed from the body by strengthening the immune system:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt05-hpv.html
Most HPV infections are transient and ...
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Have any novel virus or bacteria ever been created by man in the laboratory that we know of?
This question may be off topic for medicine. Let us not consider COVID19. Are there any known man made viruse or bacteria ever created or modified by man that we know of?
Bio weapons labs weaponize ...
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Can SARS-CoV-2 possibly overcome herd immunity without mutation in densely populated countries and places? [closed]
Can the coronavirus that causes covid-19 possibly overcome herd immunity without mutation using immune individuals as hubs till it reaches vulnerable individuals in very densely populated countries ...
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