What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

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Maddy
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What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by Maddy » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:56 pm

I've been pondering this question since long before the CoVid-19 thing arose. But now I'm all the more curious.

To the best of my understanding, some microbes to which we are exposed take up residence in our bodies for only a short time. They're either killed off by our immune systems or eradicated through antibiotic or antiviral treatment. In the process we acquire temporary or permanent immunity. Others, it seems, become a permanent part of our microbiome and can, under the right conditions, emerge later--sometimes repeatedly--to cause illness years down the road. Examples of viruses that tend to take up permanent residence include the herpes virus, which hides out in nerves, as well as the HIV and chickenpox/shingles viruses. On the bacterial side, we have the TB mycobacterium, which walls itself off in granulomatous tissue but can become active years later. Clostridium difficile is considered treatable but is notoriously difficult to eradicate, so it often hangs around in the gut undetected. I'm not sure how to characterize ordinary strep and staph, which are ubiquitous in the environment and which we generally think of as being easily treatable with antibiotics. However, people who have MRSA are often susceptible to multiple recurrences throughout life.

What generalizations can be made about why some microbes come and go and others take up residence as a permanent part of our microbiome? Or am I wrong in making this distinction? In other words, is it possible that every virus or bacterium to which we are exposed stays with us (or has the potential to stay with us) for life?

What implications might this have for the current coronavirus epidemic?
Last edited by Maddy on Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
boglerdude
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Re: What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by boglerdude » Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:29 pm

You could say cold/flu is part of the human herd genome, and like cancer, its so much like us that the immune system has trouble distinguishing it. It'll get worse every year because the population is aging.

Even stranger is self/non self with consciousness. Are you the same person you were 10 years ago
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Xan
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Re: What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by Xan » Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:19 am

boglerdude wrote:
Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:29 pm
You could say cold/flu is part of the human herd genome, and like cancer, its so much like us that the immune system has trouble distinguishing it. It'll get worse every year because the population is aging.

Even stranger is self/non self with consciousness. Are you the same person you were 10 years ago
Those are interesting issues, but I don't think Maddy is asking about why certain viruses stay with us as a species, she's asking why certain ones take up residence in a single person permanently as opposed to being eradicated by the immune system. I think.
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Re: What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by Kriegsspiel » Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:54 am

Some parasites are better-evolved than others. I remember reading in Parasite Rex about blood flukes that live inside people, releasing eggs, for decades.

I still think the Wuhan was tailored in a lab.
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Maddy
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Re: What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by Maddy » Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:51 am

[duplicate post - happened when I tried to edit "MSRA" to "MRSA" before having my second cup of coffee]
Last edited by Maddy on Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Maddy
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Re: What makes some microbes cause transient sickness while others become a permanent part of our bodily ecology?

Post by Maddy » Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:51 am

[another duplicate post - sorry]
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