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Excerpt: Bonnie Henry’s ‘Soap and Water and Common Sense’

Henry, now B.C.’s provincial health officer, provides insights into viruses, the 2003 SARS outbreak, and the top 10 myths about bugs

Thousands of people get sick from diseases caused by microorganisms that we inadvertently pick up from contaminated surfaces, ingest in our food, or inhale from the air. Countless hours of misery are caused by bugs called viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites — yet much of this suffering is preventable. 

Welcome to the awe-inspiring world of Microbes Inc., a global corporation that has dominated our planet for 3 billion years. As in any global conglomerate, there are several divisions in the world of bugs, or microbes, and while they can all cause illness, some can be beneficial, too. Let’s take a tour through the halls of Microbes Inc. and explore the different divisions. 

Viruses 

The first group of bugs is the smallest and often the most lethal: the viruses. Viruses are small packets of genetic material that have evolved over billions of years to infect humans, animals, and even plants; no living organism can escape from the destructive touch of viruses. Viruses need to use another organism’s cells in order to replicate and survive. They reproduce by inserting themselves into the cells of the body, where they hijack the programming mechanism that the cells use to replicate, making thousands and thousands of copies of themselves instead. The replicated viruses then burst out into the bloodstream, killing the initial infected cell and sending the legions of copies to find and infect more cells. 

More: https://www.tvo.org/article/excerpt-bonnie-henrys-soap-and-water-and-common-sense?fbclid=IwAR2QjJYhMu3DlTr2nlvdEEUrTaxeyyCqvIExqhYAD3YhADJutVtF4jr889M