• Question: what helps you to cure viruses

    Asked by superisa to Dilwar, Lou, Simon, Susan on 22 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 22 Nov 2013:

      Once somebody has been infected with a virus, it becomes more or less impossible to treat them. They have to rely on their own body to fight it off and our immune system is pretty good at doing this. White blood cells hit the virus with antibodies to kill it. The clever thing is that once you have fought a specific virus, it cannot infect you again as the immune system remembers it and doesn’t allow it to take hold. Thats why we usually only get things like chickenpox once in our lives.

      We use vaccines to stop people getting a virus in the first place and you have certainly been vaccinated against several things like measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccines work by injecting dead virus into our bodies, which the immune system then attacks. This gives the immune cells that memory of what that virus is like, so if we pick up a live one, it is easily destroyed.

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 22 Nov 2013:

      Hi superisa!
      Your body’s immune system kills viruses. The immune system is the body’s defense against invaders like viruses. The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect us.

      When the body detects a virus, several types of cells work together to recognise it and respond to it. These cells trigger cells called B lymphocytes to produce antibodies. Antibodies are specialised proteins that lock onto specific antigens. Antibodies and antigens fit together like a key and a lock.

      Once the B lymphocytes recognise specific antigens, they develop a memory for the antigen and will immediately produce antibodies the next time the antigen enters a person’s body. That’s why if someone gets sick with a certain disease, like chickenpox, that person usually doesn’t get sick from it again.

      This is also why we use vaccinations to prevent certain diseases. The vaccination introduces the body to the antigen in a way that doesn’t make someone ill, but it does allow the body to produce antibodies that will then protect that person from future attack by the germ or substance that produces that particular disease.

      Although antibodies can recognise an antigen and lock onto it, they are not capable of destroying it without help. That is the job of the T cells. In fact, one type of T cells are called ‘killer cells’ for that reason!

      Scientists can also make medicine that help to kill the virus in the body – these drugs are called anti-viral drugs. They can work by stopping the virus from attaching to cells in your body. It is difficult to produce anti-viral drugs which stop the virus but don’t damage the body’s cells.

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