SPECIES INFO
St. Louis encephalitis caused an epidemic in St. Louis in 1933. This disease is seemingly carried by English sparrows and mosquitoes. The mosquitoes can attack humans also. Encephalitis is evidenced by an inflammation of the brain. (Encephalitis can be caused by viruses in at least two families.)The Flaviviridae family contains viruses that can cause several serious diseaes including yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis. In many of these diseases an intermediate arthropod such as a tick or mosquito is involved.
Typical viruses include tiny organisms that contain both a nucleic acid and some proteins. Many of these cause serious illness in humans. Included herein is AIDS, yellow fever, Mumps, Measles, and Hepatitus. Estimates indicate that over 30,000 species are under study with only about 3,000 recognized.
e have lumped all the virus like lifeforms herein, as science is still working on the taxonomy tree in this area.
Viruses are the most primitive of lifeforms. These organisms are usually too small to be seen by typical microscopes. Viruses are composed of a acid nucleus and some proteins. These organisms need to invade a living cell of a host in order to grow and reproduce. Several well known diseases are caused by viruses including Hepatitis, HIV, Mumps, Influenze, Rabies, and Yellow Fever.
There are several even more primitive virus like creatures that include viroids and prions. (Viroids can cause some plant health issues, and Prions can cause the mad cow disease.)
