Germs are bad for you, aren't they?

Professor John Standford, a bacteriologist, explains why exposure to germs is so important

The idea that germs are bad for us came out of the early part of the last century when there was a lot of concentration on teaching people about bacteria and the germ theory of infection.

The scientists that became most certain that all germs are bad for us, according to Prof Standford, were the pharmacologists who were developing drugs specifically to kill germs and this was built on by people selling disinfectants and other household products. But Prof Standford says that in fact the really important ones that you need to kill are a very small number amongst the great majority:

"When you start as a bacteriologist you learn about the organisms that cause disease. As you progress further in your knowledge of this, you realise that there are many close relatives of the organisms that cause disease which are in your surroundings and it’s by meeting these that you develop protection. The hygiene hypothesis is part of a story of increasing separation from our environment and also that the environment has itself changed. And the two things together have resulted in our immune system not getting the essential learning processes that it really needs".

He continues:

"Just as when you are a small child and you learn languages and your brain is important in the way in which you learn languages, then silently and behind the scenes, the immune system is also learning. But it learns from the things that you inadvertently need. The things you eat, the things you swallow, the things that gets into cuts, the things that get into your eye, almost any place where you have direct contact with the environment, the immune system learns from it."

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