With covid19 emerging across the globe viruses are one of the most discussed topics ."Viruses are minute organisms that are in the grey area between dead and alive and the SAARS COV2 virus is one of those viruses that enters our body and makes us ill" this was all I knew about the fascinating viruses. Viruses are one tough nut to crack especially if you only try to understand about them by reading the complex and informative Wikipedia.
Luckily I came across a mentorship course in virology that was offered by Unherd- an organization that helps students choose the career path they are interested in. here is the link of Unherd please do check it http://unherd.in/
. It was an online mentorship class that aimed on teaching about the structure of viruses, techniques, cases and so much more!!.I filled out the forms and attended the interview and was one of the twenty students selected to attend the virology course which was being taught by Dr. Ritwik Dahake (https://in.linkedin.com/in/ritwik-dahake-14ab5722 please feel free to go through this)who currently is researching on Covid -19.
Joining the course was a dream come true. It was a 9 week course that took place on Saturday at 11:00 .We were taught everything from the structure of viruses, techniques of virus isolation to treatment, vaccines. We also did case studies on Influenza, HIV and Covid- 19 which was accompanied by the importance of mask 😷which worn by many people can reduce the risk of spreading to 0.01% along with the fact that soaps destroy the lipids and proteins of the virus preventing their spread .We learnt about how taking the wrong drug💊 and not taking medicines on time can lead to drug resistance. Along with that we also learnt about types like the retrovirus that works backwards, zoonotic viruses that jump from species to species .
To top it up we were also assigned groups for the projects. We had two projects the first being a presentation on viral diseases. Our team which consisted of students from my school had to present on chicken pox🐔. For our second project our teams got shuffled so that we could work with different people(luckily a close friend of mine was still in the same group as me).This time we had to present on the diagnosis and treatment of the dengue 🦟 virus .
I enjoyed and had a lot of fun collaborating discussing (sometimes even diverting from the topic) with my classmates. By the end of the 9 weeks ( which seemed to get over so fast) I was transformed from a person only knowing ABCs of virology to an amature on viruses, I had gained the knowledge on the vast topic of virology. Attending this course was much easier than reading from the detailed Wikipedia.
In a couple of days I'll be receiving my certificate and then I can finally boast to my friends :D.
