Posted on Friday, 7th August 2009 by admin
The immune system, with its innate part is our first line of defense. Thus, our natural barriers and nonspecific mechanisms are responsible for arresting the attackers who seek to invade our bodies. The skin and mucous membranes are the first barriers that must confront the invaders attempting to enter. But within these structures there are ancient mechanisms that are responsible for eliminating pathogens and act as natural antibacterial. Still, large numbers of microorganisms able finally to penetrate the body and are capable of causing disease. Most often however, a competent immune system is able to eliminate these incursions. In cases in which our immune system is unable to do so, then is when we are in trouble.
Previously the result was almost always the same: death. However, since the discovery of penicillin in 1942, we were able to kill microorganisms using exogenous substances.
The advent of penicillin has allowed human beings we survive previously fatal infections by necessity in most cases. However, the use of antibiotics has led to another serious problem for us: the resistance to antibiotics. This phenomenon occurs when some microorganisms manage to survive the administration of antibiotics. These survivors develop genetic mutations that allow them to evade the effects of antibiotics. What is serious is that this information may be shared with other microorganisms, including different species, allowing the antibiotic resistance shown in previously susceptible microorganisms.
There is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and the fact that whenever there are new antibiotics that seek to use new mechanisms of action, to avoid the phenomenon of resistance. So more and more in the world are finding strains of microorganisms that are now resistant to antibiotics that were previously considered first-line. We even speak of that at present there are some microorganisms that are resistant to existing antibiotics.
Now, contrary to popular belief that they are antibiotics that kill the microorganisms in reality is our own immune system which is responsible for removing them. So, after a course of antibiotics, which do in fact decrease the bacterial load enough so that our immune system can eliminate those remaining. This is how our immune system becomes the last line of defense.
Given the above, the question arises: Would it not be better to try to boost the immune response rather than look for new antibiotics?
Tags: immunology, self defense
Posted in Health, Medical | Comments (0)
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