Viruses

A virus (from the Latin virus meaning toxin or poison) is a small infectious agent that can only replicate inside the cells of another organism. Viruses are too small to be seen directly with a light microscope. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, about 5,000 of them have been described in detail, although there are millions of different types of viruses. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and these minute structures are the most abundant type of biological entity.

Examples of common human diseases caused by viruses include the common cold, influenza, chickenpox and cold sores. Many serious diseases such as ebola, AIDS, avian influenza, SARS and H1N1 are caused by viruses.

Viruses are also an established cause of cancer in humans and other species. Viral cancers only occur in a minority of infected persons (or animals). Cancer viruses come from a range of virus families, including both RNA and DNA viruses, and so there is no single type of "oncovirus" (an obsolete term originally used for acutely transforming retroviruses). The development of cancer is determined by a variety of factors such as host immunity and mutations in the host. Viruses accepted to cause human cancers include some genotypes of human papillomavirus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, Epstein-Barr virus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and human T-lymphotropic virus.

Regular activated carbon water filters cannot remove viruses from water. Reverse osmosis systems will remove up to 99% of all viruses to produce safe drinking water.

* Some info courtesy of Wikipedia.

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