Midpoint Reflection: Week 2

The next topic is Infectious Diseases caused by viruses. I hope you recall that viruses aren’t actually alive, but rather depend on human cells to replicate (or survive by duplicating themselves). The human herpes viruses are responsible for a wide range of infectious disease, including the common cold sore, genital herpes, chicken pox, shingles, infectious mononucleosis, Burkitt lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. If you recall, the central common truth (or dogma) dictated by molecular biology said that the flow of genetic information goes from DNA to RNA to protein. The HIV virus challenged this dogma by making an enzyme that went from RNA to DNA! Dr.

Cohen rounds out the discussion of Infectious Disease with viruses capable of causing world-wide pandemics. SARS-CoV caused an outbreak in 2003 to 2004. MERS-CoV caused an outbreak in 2012. Influenza was responsible for a pandemic in 1918-1919. You will learn about just some of the properties of these viruses that enabled them to cause such devastating disease.