Biology -Immune system -viral attack and the immune system.

Some of the most sinister viruses, such as the AIDS virus, confuses the immune system by changing its shape slightly every time it reproduces. The immune system chases its tail trying to keep up.As soon as the immune system produces an antibody to lock onto the virus, the virus reproduces a new generation of slightly altered viruses. The old antibody is useless and new antibodies must constantly be created.
The cold virus also mutates but not as rapidly as the AIDS virus. We always catch a cold every winter even though we had a cold virus the previous year.The reason for this is that we catch different strains of the cold virus. Strains that may have originated from the virus we caught last year but now have a slightly different shape.
We are often warned not to go out during the cold months of the year for we will catch a cold. For a person to catch a cold the virus must be present. It is not the temperature that causes us to be infected although the temperature does play an important role in how quickly we can eradicate the virus from our body. You see the immune system works poorly when our body temperature drops slightly, so antibodies are produced slowly and this allows the virus to take hold and produce flu symptoms.

Viral attack and the immune system.
When infected by a virus there is no medication that can be prescribed to kill the invader. A doctor may suggest staying in bed and resting. Rest allows the immune system to recover and regain strength to kill the invading viruses. Our own immune system(white blood cells) produces special proteins called antibodies. These antibodies are shape specific and are produced when a white blood cell comes into contact with a virus. These antibodies fit tightly over the virus to disable it while the white blood cells can ingest viral particles found in the body, as shown on the right. Once invaded by a virus the immune system keeps the shape of the virus in memory, ready to produce specific antibodies at a moments notice. This is why we never catch the same flu virus twice.

Some of the most sinister viruses, such as the AIDS virus, confuses the immune system by changing its shape slightly every time it reproduces. The immune system chases its tail trying to keep up.As soon as the immune system produces an antibody to lock onto the virus, the virus reproduces a new generation of slightly altered viruses. The old antibody is useless and new antibodies must constantly be created. The cold virus also mutates but not as rapidly as the AIDS virus. We always catch a cold every winter even though we had a cold virus the previous year.The reason for this is that we catch different strains of the cold virus. Strains that may have originated from the virus we caught last year but now have a slightly different shape. We are often warned not to go out during the cold months of the year for we will catch a cold. For a person to catch a cold the virus must be present. It is not the temperature that causes us to be infected although the temperature does play an important role in how quickly we can eradicate the virus from our body. You see the immune system works poorly when our body temperature drops slightly, so antibodies are produced slowly and this allows the virus to take hold and produce flu symptoms.
How does the layer of dead cells on our skin protect us from viral infection? Why are viruses sometimes considered to be non-living? The common cold and the chickenpox are two diseases caused by a virus.Why is it that we catch the cold over and over again where as the chickenpox virus only infects us once during our life? Write a creative essay explaining how a virus attacks a cell and is eventually overcome by the immune system. The title of the creative essay is "My life as a virus".
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