Abstract
Infections by pathogenic viruses cause diseases in humans. One such example is the flu, which is caused by an influenza virus. Based on the number of cells in the human body, the number of invading virus particles is extremely small. When I think about the question of just how many virus particles it takes to infect someone with the flu, I always recall the rescue of Princess Leia in “Star Wars”.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Reference
Enoki, et al. (2012). Label-free single-particle imaging of the influenza virus by objective-type total internal reflection dark-field microscopy. PLoS One, 7, e49208.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ohba, Y. (2018). Invasions of Small Numbers: How Many Virus Particles Does It Take to Infect Someone with the Flu?. In: Nagai, T., Togashi, Y. (eds) Minorities and Small Numbers from Molecules to Organisms in Biology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2083-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2083-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2082-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2083-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)