I have of late been quite intrigued by the bacteria that live all over and in the human animal. I’ve been reading Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, which has quite a lot of explanation on the role that bacteria play while we are alive, how they are controlled and used, and how, after death, we lose that control and the bacteria run roughshod, bringing about the decomposition of our bodies. It’s a tremendously interesting concept to me, this symbiotic relationship we have with these invaders. I’ve also recently had a few conversations with people on the topic of colonics, and it concerns me how many people don’t understand that the bacteria that live in our colons are for the most part not just useful but actively important to our day-to-day lives.

As such, my eye was drawn to the title of this post on Discover Blogs’s Not Exactly Rocket Science entitled When bacteria fight, bacteria lose. It’s a study of two types of bacteria (Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae) that battle for their place in those noses of mice, and presumably the model holds true to human noses. The war that these two bacteria strains fight is quite clever, and can result in serious health problems.

What I think is interesting is the notion that, unless aroused to battle by the presence of H.influenzae, the S.pneumoniae which can cause among other things pneumonia and meningitis, is a generally harmless presence. If this bacteria was to kill us, it’s host would die and given that it is not contagious, it is not advantageous for the bacteria to do so. But when conflict with H.influenzae happens, things get ugly.

Essentially, this is describing a scenario where our getting sick is a side effect not of our late night party binges or cold weather or sharing a joint with a sick person; in this instance, we get sick as the offshoot of a war we had nothing to do with between two types of bacteria that just happen to be duking it out in our noses. In this situation, we’re the true victims, simply nostrils in the wrong damned place at the wrong damned time.

Jim