• Question: How many type of virus are there?

    Asked by linguofu to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 19 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi there,

      A lot – the exact number is unknown, but more than 5,000 have been described in detail. And that’s just virions – there’s then all the informatic viruses…

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      millions!

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well, Guofu, there are more than 5’000 virus that have been studied and described in detail, but it is estimated that there are millions different types.

      There are virus that infect humans, virus that infect mammals, birds, insects – there are even virus that infect bacteria and fungus!!!

      I think they are fascinating and I’ve studied proteins from a couple of them. What do you think about them?

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      There is no accurate count on how many types there is. Germs evolve and so more kinds will become active almost every day. We do not have the resources to count them all, keep track and find the new kinds that have just came into existence.

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      I counted them once and there were 63.

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