Strange facts about viruses Everyone should know!

FACT 1:
The first virus discovered was called the Tobacco Mosaic virus as it infected a wide range of plants,  especially tobacco.

FACT 2:
M. Beijernick was the first microbiologist to crystallise this virus in the year 1892 however discovery was made by Dmitri Ivanoski. But there is a strange fact about the virus. Years before this discovery, Louis Pasteur already developed a vaccine for rabies in the year 1885, supposedly he was a genius.


FACT 3:

People think Corona Virus came out of nowhere, But that's not true. They are not new and have been existing for a long time. First coronavirus affecting humans was found in 1965.

FACT 4:

Viruses are made of genetic material either DNA or RNA and this genetic material is covered by a protein layer called CAPSID OR CAMPSOMERE. They can be single-stranded or double-stranded. COVID-19 SARS CoV-2 is a single-stranded RNA virus.

FACT 5:
COVID-19 is the first pandemic since the 2009 swine flu H1N1 pandemic.

FACT 6:

The name of the diseases is COVID-19( but the virus is SARS COV-2). The name COVID-19 has been given by WHO, But the actual pathogen which was identified from a cotton swab of the infected patient was named as (severe acute respiratory syndrome 2) SARS-COV-2.

FACT 7:

Coronaviruses are subdivided into alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Seven of these can infect humans.

• 229E(alpha)
• NL63(alpha)
• HKU1(beta)
• OC43(beta)

• Alphacoronavirus contains human coronavirus (HCOV0-229E and HCOV-NL63.
• Betacoronavirus includes HCOV-OC43, SARS-HCOV,  HCoV-HKU1, and MERS-COV.
• Gammacoronavirus includes viruses of whales and birds.
• Deltacoronavirus includes viruses isolated from pigs and birds.

SARS-CoV-2 belongs to Betacoronavirus combined with highly pathogenic viruses,  SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

The less popular ones are:

• MERS-CoV, a beta virus causing the middle east respiratory syndrome.
• SARS_CoV-1, a beta virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
• SARS_CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

FACT 8:

This new corona COVID-19 virus has at least eight strains as of now. Around 103 samples were collected and was found that the viruses weren't the same, which means it keeps changing and this is called a mutation.

FACT 9:

Lakshadweep has become the only place in India with no coronavirus cases.

FACT 10:                                                                     

RT-PCR(Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) is the 'gold standard' test for COVID-19.