A bottle of Lysol can’t make a dent in the bacterial
colonies teeming in trillions of numbers around us, on us and even
in us.
The ability of bacteria to exist in practically every imaginable
environment on Earth makes them an integral part of life and a
necessity we cannot wash away. In fact, eliminating bacteria
sometimes isn’t the best idea.
Bacteria and other microbes existed billions of years before
multicellular organisms and humans evolved.
Bacteria had a role in changing the Earth into a hospitable
environment. In short, humans would not have existed without
them.
Our codependence on them goes deeper. So deep, in fact, that
these tiny organisms make their homes in our intestines, our mouths
and our eyes.
“What is very clear is that we would have a great deal of
difficulty living without our intestinal bacteria,” said
Robert Simons, a microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics
professor.
“Our normal lifestyle is dependent upon them because they
carry for us nutrients that we cannot create for ourselves or we do
not eat, and they break down products that … we cannot break
down,” he said.
Some bacteria that are harmful, like Salmonella, can cause food
poisoning and necrotizing fasciitis, otherwise known as
“flesh-eating bacteria.”
Yet the majority of the bacteria we come in contact with on
Earth are harmless.
Bacteria aren’t necessarily always the pathogens that
afflict us but could be the hidden forces protecting us against
disease.
The intestinal flora of bacteria actually protects humans from
pathogenic microbes that cannot out-compete the flora for
resources.
Opportunistic bacteria that aren’t harmful when our
“defense bacteria” and our immune system are robust can
become pathogenic and cause diseases with the weakening of these
forces.
Streptococcus pneumonia, a typically harmless microbe, can
lethally inflict the lungs if able to get a foothold within the
body.
But humans aren’t the only niche that bacteria inhabit.
Actually, it is very unlikely to find a sterile place on Earth.
“There are bacteria that can be found in hot deserts that
are desiccation resistant. There are bacteria that can be isolated
from water that is contaminated with high levels of
radiation,” said MIMG Professor Imke Schroeder.
“This is the question that led scientists to go search for
life on Mars because they said, “˜If we can find life on this
planet in the most extreme environments, then if we go to a
different place, can we find life there?'” she
added.
The omnipresence of bacteria and their versatile application in
scientific research are being reined for other applications.
Bacteriologists are currently conducting research in the areas
of bioremediation ““ the removal of toxic waste from the
environment ““ global warming and the use of microbes for the
production of alternative fuel.
Humans have utilized antibiotics, sometimes produced from the
by-products of bacteria, as an arsenal to kill off opponent
bacteria, for more than half a century.
But the overuse of antibiotics is now causing more problems than
they were intended to solve.
“After you’ve gotten a round of antibiotics, you do
drastically reduce the number of microbes you have in such places
as your intestine and you can get … a secondary infection,”
said MIMG Professor Beth Lazazzera.
Bacterial strains that are becoming antibiotic-resistant are an
increasing threat to treatment of bacterial infections.
“Today, it seems as if as quickly as we can devise a new
antibiotic, it’s only a matter of short time before the bugs
have become immune to them,” Simons said.
Yet pathogenic bacteria are the minority among their domain and
don’t pose a serious threat against healthy college
students.
“(College students) are probably more susceptible to most
viral infections than they are to bacteria,” Lazazzera
said.
But it is important to maintain the human body’s defenses
against pathogenic bacteria like the variants of pathogenic E. coli
found in contaminated meat.
“People who are often washing their hands and buying
antibacterial (products) ““ that’s probably a very bad
idea,” Simons said.
“We need minute exposure to bacteria of all kinds, so that
when the time arises to combat a serious infection, our immune
systems will be prepared to do it properly,” he added.
In other words, a little dirt never hurt anybody.
The can of Lysol spray could be housing a few of its own
microbes.
“Whatever comes in contact with the outside world contains
bacteria,” Schroeder said.