Why are viral infections more difficult to cure than bacterial infections?
472828
Viruses lack many of the "antibiotic targets" that bacterial cells have, such as cell membrane components, ribosome subunits, and DNA polymerases.  Since viruses are basically nucleic acids surrounded by a protein coat, there is nothing unique enough for an antibiotic to target that a host cell wouldn't also have.
683982
Because bacteria and viruses cause many diseases and people often confuse them. The way they reproduce is the primary functional difference.\n\nThey differ greatly in size. Viruses are normally much smaller. \n\nBacteria are complex compared to viruses. A typical bacterium has a rigid cell wall and a thin membrane surrounding cytoplasm inside the cell. A bacterium contains all of the genetic information needed to make copies of itself. Bacteria also have tools necessary for copying DNA so bacteria can reproduce. Some have threadlike structures called flagella that they use to move. \n\n All viruses have a protein coat and a core of genetic material, either DNA or RNA. And that's it.\n\nViruses have to invade other cells and take their cellular machinery to reproduce. Viruses invade by attaching to a cell and injecting their genes or by being swallowed up by the cell. \n   \nT viral genes tell the bacterium to begin making new virus parts. These parts come together to make whole new viruses inside the bacterium. \n\nEventually so many new viruses are made that the E. coli bursts open and dies, releasing all those new viruses to infect more cells!
943417
A Virus can be killed but NOT cured.\n\nIf there is a virus on a tabletop, bleach will KILL it.  If you have a virus in your body, there is NO cure for ANY virus out there (think cold, flu, AIDS).\n\nIf you want scientific evidence, look it up on google!
438333
you may be resistant to a strain of bacteria...over time viruses/bacteria mutate and your t-cells, memory cells may not recognize them.... thus becoming prone for infection/disease.
851364
No disease caused by a virus has a cure - thus while things ranging from AIDS to the flu and cold have various remedies avaiable there is no cure. this is because given their nature, they cannot be killed, viruses can only have their reproductive rates lowered.\n\nAny disease caused by a prion - mad cow disease, kuru, various encepheliti.\n\nMany parasitic diseases: for example Lyme disease.\n\nMost hereditary diseases - Hutchington's disease etc.\n\nAgain - most conditions today have various remedies available. However, this is different from a cure which leads to the end of a disease. \n\nCurable diseases are largely those caused by bacteria or fungi. Eg, the way penicillin kills bacteria.
843238
It is an old myth. Colds are viruses thats why there is no cure.  You can catch a chill from being out in the cold but not an actual cold.
10206
Unfortunately, HIV is able to alter itself when it reproduces, so finding a vaccination is difficult, because vaccinations have to be very specific to the virus' structure. Another unfavorable situation is that virus are so small, it is very difficult to study them without killing them first-they cannot be observed on a normal microscope like bacteria can. So studying what will be affective against them in a laboratory is difficult. Also, as opposed to bacteria, which are closer in structure to plants-viruses are made up of closer to the same things animals are made of, so finding things that will work on the virus without killing or damaging the person, too-is difficult. Therefore, most likely-cures and vaccines are probably far off in the distant future. However, new and more effective treatments are very possible. The average life span of persons infected with HIV has increased tremendously. Science is becoming much better at treating the opportunistic diseases and conditions that are caused by HIV infection. So the good news for your friend is that his/her chances of living a longer and healthier life with HIV are better than they ever have been.
46942
There is definitely a possibility of curing herpes. First of all, all viruses share certain characteristics that make them susceptible to improving antiviral treatment. Secondly, we are able to cure some viruses like Hepatitis C. Just a few years ago, we didn't even know how to identify Hep C.\n\nA global vaccine program can eradicate herpes, much like smallpox. But I think that we are making great strides in virology. It's only a matter of time.\n\nI would be hard for me to explain the scientific basis for this but I'll try. Consider that there was a discovery of a major protein component of the HSV virion in 1999. It is now known that HSV induces and then prevents apoptosis (death of a cell) during its replication cycle. As we're starting to understand this process of replication and reactivation, we are learning how to interfere with the molecular pathways that may lead to a cure of HSV.\n\nAlso consider that HSV is not heavily funded research. Dramatic diseases like HIV and Avian Flu will always get more attention and more money. But we have made incredible strides in HIV and influenza. Think about it, HIV patients can now live a normal life span. We have identified the cause of avian flu and now we're working on its prevention. \n\nUnlike cancer, which seems to come out of nowhere, viruses are easier to study. There's a whole branch of medicine going beyond viruses in order to study an even smaller cousin called "prions". As nanotechnology improves, we'll soon be able to study these microscopic organisms. \n\nBe patient. There will be a cure.
553090
First of all, antibiotics will only work against a bacterial infection, not viral.  It's possible the doctor wanted to confirm that this was bacterial pneumonia (yes, there is also viral pneumonia).  \n\nSo, you may be wondering, "Why not give antibiotics either way, just to be safe?"\n\nUnfortunately, the wanton distribution of antibiotics for every little sniffle that came into a doctor's office is responsible for creating some very strong bacteria today.  The overuse of antibiotics has caused the bacteria to evolve and become stronger and more resistant to antibiotic treatment.  Your doctor is probably doing the right thing by withholding antibiotic treatment initially.
613810
Antibiotics work on the protein in a cell's membrane, usually denaturing the proteins and causing the cell to rupture.\n\nVirus do not have a cell membrane. They are not actually living, but instead take over the operations within a host cell. In order for an antibiotic to work on a virus, it would have to rupture the cell membrane of the host cell. In that case, the antibiotic would be toxic, and probably more deadly than the viral infection.
648398
HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) presents a number of challenges to finding a cure:\n1) Whenever you get a virus or bacterial disease, the medicine that you received typically doesn't kill the virus or bacterial directly. Instead it helps your immune system fight it by making it more difficult for the virus to reproduced or a range of other techniques. Your immune system will do still most of the work in defeating the infection. The HIV virus attacks the immune system. As it result this reduces the effectiveness of most traditional techniques.\n2) It mutates quickly. A drug that work effectively now will eventually stop working (in the case of AIDS it stops working even before the person infected is cured of the HIV virus requiring drug cocktails and other techniques)\n3) Because of 2 many slight variation of the virus exist out there. An effective vaccine would have to target most or all of them. This is a problem because the best treatments for a virus is a vaccine. \nThat there is no cure for a disease is not uncommon. There is no cure for the flu, a virus that kills more people every year in the US than does AIDS. There is no cure for the common cold (another virus), herpes (another virus), malaria (bacteria), ...
682807
the point about cold medicine is to treat symptoms. when it comes down to it, the larger part of viruses is practically impossible to treat. in many cases you just wait for it to self-resolve after supportive treatment.\n\nerm although i agree in some terms with the below poster, there's no denying the scientific improvements have guided us to better treatment not in terms of supportive care but of prevention, direct treatment of pathologies and/or prognosis. the twentieth century in all terms was an accomplishment for medicine.
368790
Actually getting rid of any virus is difficult.  In order for a virus to be destroyed, your body's immune cells need to form antibodies that can specifically identify the virus and cause the virus and all the infected cells be neutralized or killed by other immune cells.\n\nThe problem with HIV is several:\n\nFirst, the protein shell that surrounds the virus and makes it identifiable is constantly changing, so by the time an antibody is formed, it may not recognize the virus any more.\n\nSecond, the virus is a RNA retrovirus, meaning once it infects a cell, it can get itself copied into the DNA of the cell and hide there without detection, sometimes for years.\n\nThird, the cells that the virus likes to attack are the very immune cells that are supposed to be fighting off the virus.  This prevents the whole immune system from working the way it is supposed to and the virus just continues to spread unchecked.\n\nFourth, because it is a virus, normal antibiotics just don't work against it.  And even the anti-virals that have been developed only slow down its ability to reproduce.  They can't stop it completely or kill it because the virus is already a part of the cell's DNA.  It continues to change and over time can become resistant to the meds and start reproducing again.
180939
Sorry to say but you cannot cure a cold.  It is a virus and there are almost no viruses that can be killed by medication.  Bacteria can be killed, but not a virus.  So, just make the symptoms as bearable as possible and wait.  It will be over in a few days.
263679
I do and I see it every day in the health care field that I am in. There are so many mutating "bugs" out there now that it is frightening!(See VRE, MRSA) These mutations are resistant to most of our known antibiotics, and although every year science is able to provide us with better, stronger, varied antibiotics that DO work on the resistant bacteria and virus's, I fear the day will come when we run out of solutions, and people will start dying from pneumonia and illnesses such as this because the viruses and bacteria will be resistant to everything we throw at them.\n\nOne of the best ways to protect yourself is to be very selective about taking antibiotics. Many doctors still give them profolactivly, which is a bad idea because you don't want your body to build up resistance.\n\nGreat question!!
739052
You suffer till the rest of your life. There are no complete cure for most viral infections and it will stay for ever causing repeated painful blisters. Certain bacteria are becoming drug resistant and they are difficult to cure and they spread to other organs. The cost of treatment is also becoming highly expensive. \nPlease see the webpages for more details on STD.
299385
antibiotics only treat bacteria, a cold sore is a virus.  Pretty straightfoward.