Hostwarming Party
Fellow viruses: Friends, Family, and Acquaintances
You are cordially invited to our hostwarming party. We've recently moved to a new host, and would love to see you there. Our new cell divides more regularly and is overall a much better fit for us! Come and infect a warm-blooded vertebrate, we're sure you'll have a fantastic time!
Your favorite single strand virus family,
The Parvoviridaes
Event Information
Hostwarming Party
Directions to our host:
- enter the body through respiratory secretions or blood.
- replicate in the lymph nodes
- target rapidly dividing cells (intestinal wall)
- cells attempt to regenerate themselves, keep fighting
- THEN, you're here!
When?
Friday, Dec 11, 2015, 06:00 PM
Where?
Our humble ahost
Just a little memo to catch you up!
Let's spend the night catching up in our beautiful new home. We've already had such a wonderful time here, it seems to bring us good luck. My son Parvovirus B19 was even able aid in some skin eruptions with an exanthemeous disease (Measles) in a child! SO PROUD! He has been an infectious young lad since the day he was born. He has a knack for entering the cells of children through respiratory secretions or from droplet infection. Specifically, he targets erythroid progenitor cells in both the spleen and in bone marrow. He has struggled a bit with infecting individuals without the blood group P antigen, because B19 is its natural receptor. Never the less, that rarely happens and I'm so proud of his accomplishments! Excited for a wonderful new beginning!
Map for clearer directions
Viral Infection:
While at this party, you can watch us infect a human! How exciting! In this host we are giving him slapped cheek syndrome. This syndrome creates a distinct facial rash on our victim, as well as the typical cold symptoms: fever, nausea, headache, and runny nose. In pregnant women, and other animals such as canines, the viral infection is MUCH more serious. Getting the severe form of the infection as a pregnant women occurs once in a blue moon. However, the parvovirus in canines in dogs is very contagious and has a high fatality rate.
Disclaimer
We are not responsible for our host's bodily damage. We are simply trying to sustain ourselves. Thankfully, antivirals and normal human immunoglobulin serve as medication for afflicted humans, but they don't inflict any harm on us, they only manage symptoms. If our hosts get sick, so what? Not our problem.....
We hope you can come!!!
It's hard relocating and making a fresh start. I am not very well understood by others because I can't grow in cultures, and was only discovered in the 60's. I'm the smallest and simplest of all viruses, so it's a bit hard for me and my family and I. We may be small, but we are tough. We only contain genome and DNA, but we also are one of the most resistive viruses known to man. We are resistant to inactivation by solvents, temperature up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and pH.