Infection without Disease (from Precision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease)

A prior post listed 7 assertions regarding the role of infectious organisms on the human genome. In the next few blogs we ' ll look at each assertion, in excerpts fromPrecision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease. Here ' s the fifth:Normal defenses can block every infectious disease. Hence, every infectious disease results from a failure of our normal defenses, immunologic and otherwise. For any given infectious agent, no matter how virulent they may seem, there are always individuals who can resist infection. Moreover, as a generalization, the majority of individuals who are infected with a pathogenic microorganism will never develop any clinically significant disease [42]. As one example, Naegleria fowleri is often found in warm freshwater. Swimmers in contaminated waters may develop an infection that spreads from the nasal sinuses to the central nervous system, to produce an encephalitis that is fatal in 97% of cases [43]. Despite the hazard posed by Naegleria, health authorities do not generally test freshwater sources to determine the presence of the organism. Do not expect to find warning signs posted at swimming holes announcing that the water is contaminated by an organism that produces a disease that has a nearly 100% fatality rate. It is simply assumed that anyone who spends any time around freshwater will eventually be exposed to Naegleria. As it happens, although many thousands of individuals are exposed each year to Naegleria in the United States, only ...
Source: Specified Life - Category: Information Technology Tags: commensals host organisms latent infection precision medicine symbiotes symbiotic Source Type: blogs