It’s essentially an extra line of defence that makes it harder for antibiotics to penetrate, thus making Gram-negative bacteria more difficult to kill and more prone to developing resistance.īacteria are abundant in soil, inhabiting plant root systems to provide services like nitrogen fixing or acting as antifungal agents. The key difference is the presence of an extra outer membrane in Gram-negative bacteria. There are two types of bacteria: Gram-negative and Gram-positive. These microscopic single-celled organisms can be rod, spiral or spherical in shape. Similarly, not all viruses are bad-we now know there are also beneficial viruses present in our gut, skin and blood that can kill undesirable bacteria and more dangerous viruses.īacteria are free-living cells that can live inside or outside a body.īacteria are prokaryotes-the smallest, simplest and most ancient cells, with free-floating genetic material. Many bacteria help us: living in our gut digesting and helping absorption of our food, fixing nitrogen and decomposing organic materials in soil. On a biological level, the main difference is that bacteria are free-living cells that can live inside or outside a body, while viruses are a non-living collection of molecules that need a host to survive. Until this time, our best weapons are handwashing and physical distancing. Therapies developed against an existing virus often do not work, or work poorly, against a new virus. Rapid and effective testing is imperative, so we can successfully treat the offending microorganism.ĬOVID-19 is teaching us the hard way–we have no treatment for a new virus until we have anti-viral drugs and vaccines specifically targeted against it. With bacteria rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics, it is increasingly important that we know the distinction, because viruses can’t be treated with antibiotics, nor bacteria with antivirals.
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