ABSTRACT
Recall that in Part III (Chapters 9-14) we are looking at the characteristics of disease-causing microorganisms. In Chapter 9, we surveyed bacterial structures and related them to potential for infection, and in Chapter 10 we looked into what bacteria require for growth and infectivity. In Chapter 11, we examined the genetics of bacteria in an effort to understand how they can undergo changes that can make them more infectiously formidable. However, only about 10-15% of all infectious diseases are caused by bacteria, with the vast majority of the remaining 85-90% being caused by viruses. As you begin Chapter 12, it is important to remember that viruses succeed by commanding a host cell to make as many copies of themselves as possible so that they can continue infecting host cells. In this chapter, we examine the structure of viruses and the events associated with the viral infection cycle. Then, in Chapter 13, we concentrate on the pathogenesis of viral diseases.
