It has been two and a half years since the epidemic, what the future will be like, people need a reassurance, that is, when will this day be over, the virus is mutating, constantly updating and iterating, and human beings are also constantly injecting new vaccines, This is a war without gunpowder smoke. Will the new coronavirus disappear silently like the SARS virus?

In the open world environment, the war against the new coronavirus is no longer a matter of one country. Even if a country is cleared, the virus will not disappear as long as the vector carrying the virus exists. This is a war for all mankind, but Because of the policies of some countries to lie down early and enter herd immunity too early, they have virtually provided the virus with a good living space and the time it needs to mutate. The virus is extremely contagious, and it is a fatal blow to the elderly and the poor. Limited medical resources will inevitably lead to unequal distribution of medical resources.

In order to ensure the safety of people’s lives, the Chinese government maintains the “zero policy”, which is the most pragmatic policy. my country’s large population base is the most suitable for steady and steady development, especially in some remote areas and small cities with limited medical resources, and it is necessary to strictly guard against virus importation. , The new coronavirus is still in the research and experimental stage, this process may be a bit long, but I believe that this stage is far from reaching the conditions for herd immunity, and it is not as simple as treating the new coronavirus as a common cold. A period of time without hospitalization if you have the new coronavirus.

Self-testing reagents have appeared, the cost of virus detection will be lower and lower, and the dynamic management of the epidemic will gradually become a reality in the future. Some local governments will gradually eliminate the policy of killing chickens and taking eggs. The follow-up of the zero policy is that it means rejecting all foreign input carriers, so the dynamic management of the epidemic is the most suitable policy for the current national conditions.

The good news is that the proportion of asymptomatic infections in this outbreak in Shanghai has increased, and the number of unvaccinated deaths has increased, which is enough to show that the vaccine is effective. Therefore, we must encourage the masses to actively vaccinate. Humans and viruses are evolving together, and with the level of medical care. And with the in-depth development of virus mutation research, herd immunity will also become a reality.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a case of human infection with H5 avian influenza virus on the 28th, which is the first patient infected with this type of virus in the United States.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the case occurred in Colorado, and the infected person had direct contact with poultry and culled poultry suspected of being infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The only symptom reported by infected people was fatigue, which persisted for several days. The case is currently in isolation and is being treated with the anti-influenza virus drug oseltamivir.

The CDC said this is the second human case of infection with the currently prevalent H5 avian influenza virus, with the UK reporting the first related human case in December. Since 2003, more than 880 cases of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza virus have been reported worldwide. The H5N1 avian influenza virus that is currently prevalent in birds around the world is different from the H5N1 avian influenza virus that has been circulating in the past.

Since the end of last year, bird flu outbreaks have occurred in many places in the United States. The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that bird flu viruses have been found in farms in 29 states, and bird flu viruses have been found in wild birds in 34 states. The CDC has tracked the health of more than 2,500 people who have been exposed to birds infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, and the Colorado case is the only relevant case identified so far.

The CDC said the risk to public health posed by bird flu is low, and the above cases do not change that risk assessment. However, people who come into contact with birds infected with avian influenza virus have a relatively high risk of infection, and corresponding preventive measures should be taken.

On the earth, there will be viruses in any corner of life. Viruses depend on other life to survive and reproduce. They are between life and non-life. They are so simple that only a piece of genetic material is left, and a protective protein shell is wrapped on the outside.

However, the impact of viruses on life on earth is far beyond imagination. In human DNA, at least 8% come from the remnants of ancient viruses. These viruses may have infected human ancestors at some point, but in the end part of their genetic material integrated into human DNA.

In addition to “modifying” organisms at the genetic level, they also affect the behavior of organisms in the short term.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

Humans originated in Africa. About 15,000 years ago, humans were distributed to all land except Antarctica through migration, but what are the factors that drive human migration?

What we can think of is that as the population grows, it is forced to migrate in order to survive resources. In fact, there is another possibility-that is, to avoid infectious diseases, or sometimes to avoid viruses.

In fact, the behavior of human beings to fear and avoid infectious diseases is engraved in the bones, and sometimes we even fear those harmless things that seem to bring diseases.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?
Now, we have built cities to keep bad things out of the city, but we are not free from the virus, and this time Covid-19 is the best example.

If organisms have their own natural enemies, then the natural enemies of those standing at the top of the food chain are likely to be viruses, including humans of course.

In 1918, the Spanish Flu, which broke out during the First World War, swept the world in a short period of time. This was the first worldwide pandemic and the most serious one in the history of human infectious diseases.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

Statistics show that the death toll from this epidemic may exceed 100 million, and the global population at that time was only 1.7 billion.

However, the death toll directly and indirectly caused by the First World War was almost 16 million, far less than the damage caused by the virus. From the perspective of lethality, it is not an exaggeration to say that the virus is the natural enemy of mankind.

We know that in addition to viruses, infectious diseases can also be caused by bacteria or fungi, but why are viruses so difficult to control?

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?
Why is it so hard to find antiviral drugs?

You will find that there are many drugs for bacterial infections on the market, but it is difficult to find specific drugs for viral infections. In fact, the reason is that viruses are indeed more difficult to deal with than bacteria such as microorganisms.

Bacteria are independent life forms that are structurally similar to our cells and can survive without a host organism, but they also have many characteristics that humans do not have.

Because of this, we can build antibacterial drugs based on these characteristics that we don’t have.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

For example, penicillin works because it interferes with the construction of bacterial cell walls, but no cells in the human body have cell walls, so penicillin can inhibit bacterial growth but cannot affect human cells.

Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot reproduce independently outside the host cell (“replication” may be more appropriate here), and they need to hijack the host cell as a place to survive and reproduce.

Obviously, in terms of independent viability, the virus is completely killed by bacteria, and it can even be said that the virus basically has no independent viability.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

But their relationship with the host cell makes it difficult to kill them alone and keep the host cell alive.

Because many viruses do not kill the cell directly after entering the cell, but instead enter a latent phase, where they replicate slowly inside the cell, then leak out quietly and infect other cells.

So, there are some antiviral drugs (there are antiviral drugs) that can control their infection by interfering with the replication of the virus, but unfortunately, most of the time doing so also inhibits the replication process of the host cell, in other words this The drug is also toxic to the infected.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?
In fact, the more dependent a virus is on host cells, the harder it is for antiviral drugs to work.

In addition, viruses do not have a simple classification like bacteria. Different bacteria can find many similarities, but different viruses have unimaginable differences, which means that it is difficult to find a specific medicine that can deal with multiple viruses.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?
Do viruses have natural enemies?

In fact, using drugs to fight bacteria can only bring short-term benefits, the resistance of bacteria will continue to increase, and eventually the drugs will fail, so now the use of antibiotics has been criticized, and many people worry about creating superbugs.

Fortunately, there are some more reasonable solutions now, that is, biological control, in other words, the natural enemies of bacteria can be used to control bacterial infections.

The available “bacterial enemies” that biologists have found today are bacteriophages—actually, viruses that can infect bacteria.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

Organisms get rid of various natural enemies through evolution, but it is really difficult to get rid of viruses. In a sense, viruses are the natural enemies of all living things.

There are some viruses that can infect bacteria and inhibit the reproduction of bacteria, but they have no effect on humans. They are really natural “antibacterial drugs”, and there are basically no side effects.

So, could viral infections be handled in a similar way?

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

The simple answer is that viruses also have biological predators, but it is difficult to deal with their infection in a biologically controlled manner.

While it’s hard to call viruses life, like we said earlier, they have a protein coat and NDA, which means they’re rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, which are nutrients for many life forms.

Therefore, it has been found that many native unicellular organisms “prey” viruses, but they basically prey on the bacteriophages we mentioned earlier, maybe only these viruses are closely related to protists.

However, it is basically impossible to use protists to treat viral infections. For that reason, viruses are closely related to host cells in our bodies, rather than being exposed to predators.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?

However, there is a virus that can also infect other viruses. These viruses are called virions. Virophages are the same as the phages we mentioned earlier. They use other viruses to replicate and affect the replication of other viruses.

However, it is also difficult for us to use them as antiviral drugs, because these virions only infect giant viruses, and for those viral diseases that are not very large, their virions are basically not found.

Why do human drugs kill bacteria but not viruses? Do viruses have natural enemies?
At last

Everything in the world is always interdependent. Although viruses “disguise” themselves as not even life, there are still life that will prey on them, but it is really difficult to deal with their infection, which is determined by the relationship between them and host cells of.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on April 15 that dozens of children in the UK had unexplained acute hepatitis symptoms, some of which were severe enough to require immediate liver transplants. As of the 8th, the number of patients had surged to 74 in just three days. many. At present, Spain and the United States have also successively reported cases of childhood hepatitis of unknown origin, and the WHO and the British authorities are taking it seriously.

According to comprehensive foreign media reports, on the 5th, 10 severe acute hepatitis reports were found in Scotland in northern England. The patients were mainly children under 10 years old. On the 8th, the number of hepatitis patients in the UK increased to 74, of which 6 were serious A liver transplant is required, but no deaths have been reported as of the 11th.

At present, 60 cases are under investigation in the UK. Most of the patients are children between 2 and 5 years old. Some cases even develop acute liver failure. The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention has not detected the common virus that may cause hepatitis in the cases. , and it is impossible to confirm whether the symptoms are related to the new coronavirus.

At present, the symptoms of British patients are jaundice, diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Since they have not been vaccinated against the vaccine, they are ruled out as side effects caused by the vaccine. In its statement, the WHO said it had ruled out hepatitis A, B, C, D and E as the cause of liver disease in the UK cases, although it mentioned that the virus causing the new coronavirus was detected in several cases or adenovirus.

In the US state of Alabama, 9 children aged 1 to 6 years were also identified as having hepatitis. These children were also positive for adenovirus, and 2 of them required liver transplantation. None of these children had any underlying health conditions. Spain has also confirmed 3 cases; Ireland has reported fewer than 5 possible confirmed cases, and these cases are currently under investigation.