Bug Warfare Woes—Part 1

This last year has witnessed an extraordinary worldwide struggle with the COVID-19 disease. Not since the plagues of the 13^th century or the 1918 flu has such a huge impact of disease on human civilization occurred. COVID is an example of the dangers we humans flirt with, as we increasingly interact with and encroach upon the natural world. When we do so, we inevitably encounter diseases that leap from animals to humans. We can be thankful for how quickly modern science described the genetic basis of this latest virus and developed a vaccine in record time.

But did we set ourselves up for this threat, and have we handled it well? Yes, we have brought about a situation that virtually guaranteed the current pandemic, with our behavior that has made us vulnerable to animal diseases, and no, we have not dealt with it appropriately. A far better response could be imagined—if only one that fostered better cooperation between countries and regions. Yes, we can take credit for a “warp speed” vaccine, but there are much better ways we could have handled the epidemic.

Considering humanity's dealings with infectious diseases caused by various kinds of microorganisms, the struggle began long ago. But real warfare did not begin until humans concentrated in densely-populated clusters. All of the infectious bugs that cause human disease require high-density environments such as cities, for them to move easily from person to person. They require a host to invade, reproduce inside, and then invade another host, in order to perpetuate their species. 

Long before we realized that microorganisms were the cause of these diseases, we turned to religion or magic to protect us. The mysterious sources of these illnesses bewildered us. Then, a couple of hundred years ago we realized that microscopic critters were the cause... critters who invaded our bodies and made us sick. That understanding soon led to some ways in which we could effectively battle against them. So, in the same way that we respond to an invading human army, we went to war with bugs. Our mentality was to defeat them, in order to escape their diseases. Kill them and we could carry on securely.

Soon we began to understand the value of natural antibiotics to enlist in the war. And we later created vaccines—injecting us with harmless versions of an organism that would trigger our immune system to identify and defang the bugs. We began to use hygienic practices that either fended off or destroyed germs. These treatments were fantastically successful in curbing or fully eradicating several social diseases. 

But the process of going to war on microorganisms proved to be triumphant only in the short term. Just as humans have been caught up in arms races with each other throughout history—which has succeeded only in perpetuating endless and increasingly devastating wars—bugs have continued to engage with us in battle by quickly evolving to become increasingly formidable foes. As an example, the US developed the atom bomb in the 1940s and used it to terminate WWII (it was a “bomb to end all bombs”). But the USSR soon had the bomb too… so we both graduated to the hydrogen bomb. Now we stare each other down, with our finger on the trigger that could terminate humanity.

A result of this mentality is that, in our war on bugs, we have brought about the evolution of extremely hardy microorganisms that are now immune to most of our antibiotics. We've literally bred superbugs in this arms race. In a very similar manner, we have retaliated against agricultural pests by manufacturing pesticides that we've lavishly spread across the environment, with the long-term result that we've bred super insects that have grown a resistance to our insecticides. These problems have been brought about by our attitude of going to war, with little thought to where that approach will inevitably lead: a never-ending arms race.

Next time, a better way…

You Are Not You--Part 2

All this anti-bacterial frenzy ignores the truth that our bodies cannot live without our friends the bacteria. In just the last few decades has science begun to realize the beneficial role of many types of internal bacteria. We’d best learn to call a truce in our bacterial wars, or we’re gonna crash and become part of our own “collateral damage.”

But breeding new species of super bugs is not the only unfortunate fallout of our war on bacteria. Some recent research seems to be pointing the way toward the increasing incidence of autoimmune diseases and other chronic modern ailments. It’s still a mystery exactly why such diseases as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and others are escalating, but our blundering is probably involved. We are altering our environment and upsetting biological balances that were built over eons. It’s becoming clear that antibiotics are a significant cause of autoimmune disorders. How?

The driving force behind our immune system is not a self-contained mechanism run by us, but is created primarily by beneficial bacteria. Ever since we became a separate species (about 200,000 years ago), our immune system has been able to tread a delicate balance between being too lax (thus failing to detect and battle foreign pathogens) and too aggressive (and attacking our own cells). Beneficial bacteria have trained our immune system to achieve that crucial balance. It’s not our own DNA that does the job, but bacterial (non-human) DNA. But now we’re upsetting that balance. We’ve saturated our bodies with antibiotics to the point that our immune system is confused and sometimes attacks our own cells.

Another way we mess up our immune system is by not exposing babies to dirt. We’ve become so obsessed with protecting our newborns from nasty bugs that we raise them in as sterile an environment as we can. Meeting a paucity of microorganisms, their immune systems never get a chance to become robust and balanced. This is a particular problem today, as more women are receiving cesarean sections to deliver their babies. The womb is an incredible bug-shielding organ. As an embryo develops from two cells to a trillion, it can safely do so in the womb’s sterile environment—without being turned into some kind of monster by mom’s invading bugs. But to survive in this dirty world, a newborn must very quickly develop its immune system. That process begins as it descends the bacterial-laden birth canal, and continues, as the baby sucks bacterial-laden mother’s milk and inhales Uncle Charlie’s bacterial-laden breath.

But a baby born by C-section immediately pops from a sterile womb into a germ infested world, with no preparation in the birth canal. We aggravate the situation by spraying disinfectant on everything that baby touches. Result: an out-of-balance immune system that goes haywire and either allows otherwise harmless bacteria to beat it down or goes into overdrive and attacks itself.

So the next time your doctor starts to write you out a prescription for a course of antibiotics for some non-lethal infection, you might think about declining. The next time you talk with an expectant mother, you might caution her about the sterile danger of a C-section and encourage her to breastfeed. If neither of these opportunities arises, express a little gratitude for all the friendly foreign critters who make their abode inside you. Your life literally depends on them!

[Note: Some of the information that stimulated this posting is found in the

June 2012 issue of Scientific American.]