What Causes Different Symptoms Between Viruses?
I’m doing a research project for school. We learned about the lytic and lysogenic cycles of viruses, however what I want to know is if all viruses do is take over a cell and make copies of themselves, why do viruses produce symptoms and why is there such a variance between the symptoms of viruses?
Viruses produce symptoms because they are killing cells in your body, making you sick. They literally lyse (destroy) the cell they take over during the lytic cycle. During the lysogenic cycle, there will be no symptoms because the cells will not be lysed. Viruses produce different symptoms because they are specifically targeted for different types of cells. For example, yellow fever virus attacks the liver cells, causing liver failure in some cases.