Viral Pathogens

Viruses infect all forms of life, including humans, animals, plants, bacteria, and archaea. Viral infections in humans can cause mild to severe and sometimes fatal diseases, such as the common cold, flu, chickenpox, cold sores, rabies, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and certain cancers. They have also been the cause of pandemics with significant death tolls on a global scale, such as the 1918 Spanish flu and COVID-19. Animals often serve as natural reservoirs (hosts) or intermediate hosts for viruses that cross species barriers to infect humans (viral zoonoses); therefore, viral infections in animals such as livestock, companion animals, and fish have major impacts on animal and human health, economics, food safety, and ecology. Plant viruses are responsible for more than half of the emerging infectious diseases in plants and cause significant economic losses in crop yields worldwide. To combat this, bacteriophages, a common and diverse group of viruses infecting bacteria and the most abundant biological entity in aquatic environments, have been explored as novel therapeutics. The discovery and research of viral pathogens are essential for developing diagnostics and methods of prevention and treatment of various viral diseases.

The section “Viral Pathogens” welcomes the contribution of original research and review papers covering all aspects of viral pathogens and host–virus interactions.