• Question: What's the difference between bacteria and a virus?

    Asked by to Del, Catherine, John, Krishna, Mo Rassul on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: John Foster

      John Foster answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      There are lots of differences:

      Bacteria are larger than viruses. You can see bacteria under a normal microscope but you cannot see viruses.
      Bacteria are alive, while scientists cannot agree whether viruses are alive too.
      Bacteria have a wall around them, whereas viruses have a coat of protein.
      We can use antibiotics to treat bacterial infections but we cannot use them to treat viruses. But some viruses can be prevented by vaccinations, like the MMR vaccination.

    • Photo: Catherine Mansfield

      Catherine Mansfield answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Good question!
      Bacteria are single cell living organisms which can infect larger organisms. Viruses however are much smaller and are not usually thought of as living organisms. This is because viruses can only replicate when they are inside another cell. Viruses do not have a cell wall or a cell membrane, whereas bacteria do. So, viruses are generally much simpler than bacteria, they consist of just a protein coat which holds the DNA (or RNA in some cases).
      Antibiotics can be used to kill bacteria, but they do not work against viruses.

    • Photo: Muhammed Rassul

      Muhammed Rassul answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Viruses tend to be smaller. They tend to rely on other cells to reproduce and have any effect. They tend to be a protein coat with DNA, and not much else. You can have viruses which effect bacteria.

      Bacteria live in their own right. They don’t need us to live, but they can effect us. They have a lot more stuff than DNA and a protein coat.

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