Considering what you know about micro-organisms, germ theory, and experimental methods to address the following:

A new pathogen has recently been reported as spreading through the American Midwest. Currently, the pathogen is known only as MidAmerica1 (MA1) and thought to be a retrovirus. You work in a lab studying this disease and hope to make a vaccine.

MA1 infects both humans and mice (which makes it especially easy to do lab experiments with).

What experiment can be done to determine whether MA1 is a virus or not? How would you distinguish between a virus, a bacteria, and a toxin?

How ho each of the following treatments work? And which treatments might be effective in treating patients?

1. Amoxicillin

2. Augmentin

3. reverse transcriptase inhibitor

4. Tetracyclin