Pathogenicity:
- Refers to the ability to cause disease when the microorganism infects the host organism.
- A microbe capable of causing disease is referred to as a pathogen, whereas the infected organism is known as a host.
Characteristics of pathogens:
To be considered a successful pathogen, an organism must be able to-
- Colonize the host
- Avoid immune responses from the host.
- Replicate using the host's machinery
- Exit and spread to a new host.
Viruses:
- Infectious agents that replicate inside a host's body.
- They are neither living nor non-living.
- Viruses are pathogenic because they need to hijack the cellular machinery of living cells to multiply.
- Examples of pathogenic viruses- Coronavirus, Zika virus, HIV, etc.