WHY BACTERIA HITCH A RIDE IN OUR BLOOD VRITTI KHARBANDA
Say there is a patient with a swollen arm, a red and purple rash that makes people’s stomach churn when they see it. But why exactly does that arm look disgusting? There could be many reasons, but the obvious being bacteria and viruses. Other culprits include parasites and fungi.
Let’s take the first case of bacteria. How exactly does it get inside our body to cause an infection? Bacteria enter the body through crevices that are open to the outside world. Once inside the body there are two possible paths the bacteria can take: either the immune system fights it off, or the immune system fails to battle the infection and the bacteria enters the body, usually through the blood. The blood is in constant motion as it circulates through the body, usually to deliver oxygen and other nutrients to the tissues of the body. However, blood in constant motion may have unintended effects, some of which are not beneficial for us, but exactly what that virulent bacteria was hoping for.
Essentially, the bacteria get a free ride from the blood and hop off when they have arrived at the tissues that they plan to attack. Bacteria usually only infects one area of the body, making them very specialized attackers. Then, the bacteria replicate and grow such that they eventually cause a disease. Let’s return to the example of the patient with the disgusting arm. The bacteria left the blood at the arm, were specialized at attacking the arm, replicated and grew and then caused an infection.
Let’s take a quick example of a bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus, more commonly known as Staph. If Staphylococcus were to enter a wound, win the attack initiated by the body’ immune response, travel throughout the bloodstream, and infect the skin on the arm, then the bacteria will jump onto the skin cells, colonize it, grow and reproduce, and then later in time, there is a Staph infection on the patient’s arm. What’s one way to reduce the spread of Staph infection? Wash your hands. Does this sound familiar? Maintaining good hygiene and being careful will not only help prevent the spread of COVID-19, but also other types of infections, not just limited to viruses, but as we have seen here infections related to bacteria. Even though COVID-19 has created novel problems and situations in many spheres of people’s lives (economic, health, social etc.) we are learning life lessons, such as the importance of hygiene and how to properly wash your hands, that if continued, can help us reduce other infections even post-COVID.