So, is a virus a living thing or not? And can a virus be "killed"?

Question

So, is a virus a living thing or not? And can a virus be "killed"?

Answer 1

It is a biological mystery.There are not living in outside,but once inside the body of the host they start replicating.They are surrounded by a glyco-protein coat,so they are difficult to kill.They can be killed like common cold virus or sometimes cannot like the AIDS virus.

Answer 2

It kind of depends on your definition of "alive".

Microsoft Word is an application.  It a macro virus also an application?  It does nothing on its own, it just twists the programing and algorithms and subroutines of Microsoft Word to its own ends.  Without the environment of the commands and comptuer interactions that Word provides, the macro does nothing.  

Viruses in biology are much the same.

Answer 3

A virus is not a bacteria and technically is not considered a living organism because it doesn't meet all the requirement for being a living object i.e. homeostasis, organization,metabolism,growth,adaption, response to stimuli and reproduction. A virus cant reproduce on its own(it injects its genetic material into a host) and they don't have a metabolism. Yes, it can be "killed"-that's what are immune system is for

Answer 4

a virus is a living thing and it can be killed by a antibiotic

Answer 5

A virus is a whole lot of living things called germs.

They can be killed with heat, hence the reason you get a fever when you are sick.

Answer 6

submicroscopic parasite: a submicroscopic parasitic particle of a nucleic acid surrounded by protein that can only replicate within a host cell. Viruses are not considered to be independent living organisms.

Answer 7

OMG NO!! its not a living thing, and it is not bacteria. that is why u cant kill it using antibiotics.  you cannot kill something that is not living that is also why it is bad when u get a virus because u cant really take anything to stop the virus except to take something to help with ur symptoms. ur body can destroy it tho  so u just have to wait until the virus has self destructed itself and ran its course out of ur body.

Answer 8

a virus is a living thing because it is bacteria

there are two kinds of viruses:

life threatening- this bacteria will try to kill your internal body. some can be treated with antibiotics

wish you never had it- STD's will slowly kill your immune system.  most cannot be cured

Answer 9

No, a virus is not considered to be a living entity.  A virus is just some sort of genetic material (either DNA or RNA) enclosed within a protein coat.  Viruses do not metabolize, cannot reproduce on their own, and are not composed of cells, so we do not call them living.

Because they aren't alive, viruses can't technically be "killed," but they can be damaged, disabled, or destroyed in any number of ways.  The protein coat can be denatured or damaged in such a way that it becomes difficult or impossible to infect other cells.  The genetic material is also subject to irreparable damage, since viruses contain no repair or proofreading enzymes.

Since viruses aren't living entities, we can't call them "alive" or "dead," but they can be referred to as either "active" or "inactive."  Active viruses are busy invading host cells and making use of cellular machinery.  Inactive viruses, on the other hand, are just floating around not doing anything; they're dormant.

Answer 10

yes and yes with a but.. a virus is something like comon cold for instance, it grows and reproduces so it is alive but ... well i dont know really but it is alive