VIRUSES IN ORAL DISEASES

Many human illnesses are caused by infections with either pathogenic bacteria or viruses. To cause a disease, these microorganisms must gain access to the body. Bacteria reproduce by splitting in two, while viruses replicate themselves inside the host cells. Many bacterial infections can be treated successfully with antibiotics, but these are not useful against viral infections. The word ¿virus¿ is an ancient Latin, meaning ¿slime¿ or ¿poison¿.Paradoxically, early virus studies considered virus filtrates to be a poison, not a microbe, thus the name virus. In 1898, Friedrichh Loeffler and Paul Frosch found evidence that the cause of Foot and Mouth Disease in livestock was an infectious particle smaller than any bacteria. This was the first clue to the nature of viruses, genetic entities that lie somewhere in the grey area between living and non-living states.