What is the difference between a disease and a virus?

Answer 1

A virus feeds off its host cell, and a parasite is an organism that feeds off another organism.. hmmm sounds like to me they are similar. like the words "chips" and "french fries" :-)

Saying a virus "feeds" off its host cell is inaccurate. It injects its own DNA into a host cell, thereby destroying the host cell and creating more viruses. There really is no similarity between viruses and parasites.

Answer 2

The main difference is that a virus is smaller than a cell. It is composed of a self replicating string of RNA and invades the cell and alters the DNA within it to manufacture copies of itself. A germ, or bacteria, is of a similar size to that of a cell and exudes toxins which can poison the body. Antibiotics kill bacteria and anti-virals attempt to kill viruses but since they are in every cell it could cause every cell to be killed in order to get rid of the virus.

Answer 3

Viruses are submicroscopic non-living infectious organisms that cause disease in animals and plants when these organisms infect living cells to use as hosts for viral replication. Viruses are chemical and protein structures that can attach to, and then gain entry to, the host's living cell. Outside of a living cell, a virus is inactive and dormant, but once inside, it takes over the resources of the host cell and makes the cell begin the production of more identical virus particles. Viruses are more similar to a package of mechanized bits of information, that have structures and chemicals that allow them to "hijack" a living cell, than they are to animal or plant life.

A disease is a condition that causes illness, it could be an infectious disease (like pneumonia, mumps, or a wound infection), or it could be a disease caused by a disorder of organs, genetics, hormones, or wear and tear or injury on functional body parts, etc. (such as diabetes mellitus, toxic results of lead poisoning or other pollution, asthma, Heart disease, Arthritis, etc.). Some Infectious Diseases are caused by viruses, such as influenza and measles, making the virus the infectious agent/pathogen, and influenza the disease in this example. (Bacteria are examples of another type of infectious agent/pathogen that cause infectious disease.)

Answer 4

The major distinction between these is if they are DNA or RNA.