General Virology

Virology is the scientific study of viruses and virus-like agents.  A virus is a parasitic intracellular organism and that’s a protein-coated genetic material. When it comes to size, shape, and chemical makeup, these are heterogeneous intracellular groups of microorganisms that either contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA).

The primary focus of virology is on the structure, classification, and evolution of viruses as well as how they interact with host and immune response, the diseases they cause, how to isolate and culture them, and how to use them in research and therapy.

Viruses are distinct life forms that different from all other living organisms, either eukaryotes or prokaryotes, for following fundamental reasons:

• The characteristics of the habitat in which they thrive and proliferate.
• Genomic nature
• The mode of their multiplication
• Its chemical composition
• Size of viruses

Usually, virus classification is based on the structure and composition of the virus particle (virion). viruses are classified into various families and each has a different chemical composition. Those are:

• Animal viruses
• Human or medical Virus
• Plant viruses
• Bacteriophage
• RNA viruses
• DNA viruses
• Retroviruses

The list of virus infections that have had a major socioeconomic impact recently is provided below.

• AIDS
• Ebola
• Influenza
• SARS
• Chikungunya
• Smallpox
• Corona Virus