What is the difference between bacteria and viruses?

Answer by  XiaoXin (79)

Bacteria can grow without a living host, whereas viruses need a living host. Bacteria can reproduce by themselves by splitting into two, whereas viruses cannot reproduce by themselves. Most bacteria are beneficial to humans. Viruses are like parasites. You can cure infectious diseases caused by bacteria.

Answer by  junebug0720 (270)

Viruses must have a living host to live and multiply. Bacteria can survive on non living things. Viruses must have to kill other cells to reproduce. Bacteria can just reproduce.

Answer by  mediajunkie (592)

Viruses need a living host to breed and multiply. They tend to float around until they find a suitable living host to attach themselves to. Bacteria can grow on any surface and multiply on their own without the need for a host.

Answer by  kingkagahastian (27)

There are a lot of differences of bacteria and virus. Bacteria has a nucleus while virus has none. Not all bacteria causes disease while virus always causes disease. Bacteria can be eliminated by anti-biotic while virus can be eliminated by anti-viral medicines. And bacteria is much larger than the virus, in size.

Answer by  starmlw (960)

Bacteria are organisms that cause infection. The type of bacteria and the location were they grow determine the type of infection and antibiotic you will need. Viruses are just packets of RNA that cause illness but they do not respond to anti-biotics. Strep throat is caused by Bacteria. The common cold and chicken pox are caused by viruses.

Answer by  Drynose (66)

Bacteria are living microorganism. Viruses are not living organism but some programmed DNA that "convert" your normal living cells to pathological one.

Answer by  eilrol (1431)

Virus is bad and bacteria can be good. A virus multiplies with the help of other hosts and a bacteria multiplies on it's own. A virus can not be destroyed by antibiotics and bacteria can be destroyed by antibiotics. A virus is 10 times smaller than a bacteria. A virus can lay dormant for years and bacteria can not.