You go to the doctor when you want to be vaccinated against a certain disease because the disease has been identified with a cure. The same applies for your computer. Once a virus is identified, the matching code is put into the program. The program will then search your computer or stop it before it starts using this code. There are viruses created every day so it is important to update your definitions on a regular basis.
If you have a virus or would like to avoid getting one, then you should use a program like this one.
Once a virus has infected your computer or slipped through, it can become troublesome. If it is a worm, it may already be eating its way through your data. You can remove the worm but the damage may have already be done. The best defense against computer viruses getting on your computer is to have a virus detection program. This type of program will monitor items that you download or items that you may be used to run your programs. Once it finds a virus, it will quarantine the code or remove it altogether depending on how you have the program setup.
There are a lot of programs out there but this one is one of the better ones that I have found to clean and protect you from the computer criminals out there.