Poliovirus
It is just as the name suggests, Poliovirus causes Polio. Polio is a highly virulent disease that leads to the damage or destruction of motor neurons. With their damage or destruction, paralysis will set in. In certain cases, the paralysis of certain skeletal muscles result in bone deformities that can lead to disability.
Poliovirus is a very simple virus, made up of only its capsid and RNA genome. Once it infects (Via fecal oral route) its victim however, the virus grows in the digestive tract and has a chance of entering the blood stream which can lead it to the brain or spinal cord, where it can spread to nerve cells.
In the body, the virus binds to special receptors on the target cells. This binding allows the virus to enter the host cell, where it uncoats and has its RNA immediately get translated by the host ribosomes. No conversion is needed due to the similarities between positive sense single stranded RNA and single stranded mRNA.
Due to the lack of cure for Polio, research began for a vaccine and and effort by the World Health Organisation (WHO) was started in 1988 to eradicate Polio. By 2006, Polio is only restricted to 4 countries, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Image of Poliovirus
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