We hear a lot about helpful bacteria in our body such as in our guts helping us digest food. What about viruses? Are there any known viruses that help our body and if so what is it referred to? Just curious if there is such a thing as a good virus like there is with bacteria.
In: 8
Sure. [Phages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage). Viruses for bacteria. Since they’re generally only effective against bacteria (and certain bacteria at that), they’re safe for humans to consume/inject to fight off bacteria infections. Similar to anti-biotics like penicillin, a bacteria that eats other bacteria. The enemy of my enemy is a useful tool, if not a friend.
Then there is their roll in the cas9-crispr thing… which I don’t really get.
And to an extent, you could say that all of them are good in that they force organisms to check and correct themselves. To not have vulnerabilities. Imagine a island where nobody stole anything and so nobody had any locks on their doors. All is good right? Well then sailboats are invented and a bunch of outsiders come in, bringing over some theives who can casually just pilfer whatever they want whenever they want. Similarly, one of the reasons that natives in America got wrecked was because Europeans lived in such squalor so close to all those animals for such a long time that they built up a strong immune system. So the local American diseases and plagues didn’t wreck the conquistadors nearly as much as smallpox killed the local people. Another example of something similar is the increase soap usage and cleanliness leading to kids with poor immune systems leading to the polio outbreak. It’s less “disease makes you healthy” so much as viruses help keep populations healthy by killing off the ones that aren’t healthy.
Latest Answers