PREFACE The purpose of this audio-course is to provide you with a solid and thorough education on virology as it applies mainly to human diseases. While scientists have long suspected that there were infectious particles we now know to be viruses causing some human infections, the actual finding of viruses, their structures, and functions have been relatively recent because of medical research. In recent years, there has been an explosion of what medical researchers and doctors know about viral diseases and their effect on human health, leading to interventions that have greatly reduced the impact of these types of infections on our lives. In this audio-course, the focus will be on how viruses cause disease, the human host response to viral infections, and the pathophysiology of the many different viral infections that affect all humans throughout the world. Many viruses are wellestablished and have caused the same known infections for millennia, while others are novel infections that continue to cause epidemics and pandemics, even in the modern medical era when we think we have the answers to all types of human diseases. Some viruses cause cancer because of their effect on the human cell genome, while others are used to treat human diseases in unique ways. We will also talk about the different approaches to managing viral infections, such as antiviral drug therapy and immunizations used to provide primary intervention against viral diseases. Chapter one in the course introduces the study of viruses and virology by looking at what viruses are, how we have come to understand them, and how it is believed that viruses fit into the evolution of life on earth. Viruses have different structures and several choices in the types of genetic material in them that affect how they behave in an infection. In this chapter, we will also talk about the taxonomy of viruses as well as about the typical viral life cycle during a cellular infection. Chapter two furthers the discussion of viruses by looking at viral infections in general. The basics of viral pathogenesis are discussed along with the typical immune response to viral infections, which leads to the majority of symptoms. Viruses with different
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