Question: How does the immune system get rid of viruses?

Ben Mulhearn answered on 16 Mar 2018:

Well! Viruses infected our cells, and then replicate inside them before being released. So, the body has two ways to clear viruses. The first is to get rid of the viruses by coating them in antibodies (which are produced by B cells). The antibodies allow other immune cells to come along and eat them up (such as macrophages and neutrophils). Secondly, the infected human cells need to be killed to stop the virus from spreading. To do this, first of all the infected cells need to tell the immune system that they are infected. Next, cells like natural killer cells, and cytotoxic (cell-toxic) T cells come along and kill the infected cells by releasing toxic chemicals onto their surfaces, or giving the infected cells ‘death’ signals. It’s really interesting!