Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents, including (but not limited to) their taxonomy, disease-producing properties, cultivation and genetics. It is often considered a part of microbiology or pathology.'Firstly, the increasing importance of virology is clearly linked to the fact that we know more and more viruses, understand their links to certain diseases better and that epidemiology looks at certain viral infections in new ways: all of a sudden we recognise viruses where we did not see them before.
Martineaus Beijerink is considered the father of virology.
Virology is a subfield of microbiology.The study of viruses is known as virology, and those who study viruses are known as virologists. It has been argued extensively whether viruses are living organisms.
The first IBM PC virus in the "wild" was a boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, created in 1986 by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written.