Viruses and Bacteria and how to beat them

October 2010
By Dr Peter Berkin

What can we do about viruses and bacteria?

Throughout my career as a GP I have struggled to help my patients to understand the difference between common viral infections and bacterial invasion of the body. Most people simply lump all infections together in their minds and assume that any infection needs treating with antibiotics. The truth is that the vast majority of infections that we suffer are due to viruses, which are not killed off by any antibiotics.

Take for instance one of the commonest symptoms that a patient will bring to me as a GP – a sore throat. When a sore throat is particularly bad it often gets the label “Tonsillitis”. This sounds terribly serious and makes people believe that they need serious treatment. In fact every sore throat will get better on its own and it is only in very rare cases that a sore throat heralds the onset of serious illness. The vast majority of sore throats are caused by simple viral attack which may be relatively minor and just last a day or so or may be more severe if due to a more potent virus such as influenza in which case more widespread symptoms such as headache, fever, muscle pains and cough will also appear as the virus spreads throughout the body over a period of seven to ten days. The body’s natural defences eventually recognise the virus and produce potent antibodies (not antibiotics!), which can eradicate the viral particles from the body. Antibiotics cannot help with this process and indeed can do more harm than good by killing off healthy bacteria in the body and causing nasty side effects such as diarrhoea, thrush, or even worse serious allergic reaction and death! Viruses are very small indeed and can only reproduce themselves by entering the living cells of plants or animals and taking over the reproductive mechanisms of those cells. Most viruses do this without seriously harming the host organism.

Fortunately it is much less common for bacteria to invade the body because when they do they can do a lot of damage very quickly. A small child can die of meningococcal septicaemia within hours as the very potent meningococcus bacterium invades all parts of the body too quickly for the body’s natural defences to stop the attack. Most bacteria only get into the body where the body has been damaged, so for instance a dirty wound may quickly become infected by bacteria if not properly cleaned and dressed to keep bacteria out until healing can take place. Bacteria are much bigger than viruses and usually take the form of single cellular, quite complex organisms that come in all shapes and sizes and have evolved to live in just about every environment possible. In hospital environments bacteria have already evolved in such a way that they can live quietly in people’s noses and then invade surgical wounds after operations while resisting the effects of even the most potent antibiotics. This is another good reason for avoiding the unnecessary use of antibiotics at home as this can lead to the development of dangerous, resistant strains just like those already developing in hospitals.

What can we do to naturally keep viruses and bacteria at bay? Well most of the time we live in harmony with very large numbers of both viruses and bacteria and it is only the occasional rogue organisms that defeat our defences. We have evolved to make maximum use of essential nutrients in our foods to build strong defences so it is very important that we eat plenty of fresh fruit and raw vegetables in order to keep our bodies well supplied with the natural vitamins and minerals that we need. Simply washing our hands well with soap and water dramatically reduces the number of bacteria and viruses that we transmit between ourselves. We can protect ourselves against some specific viruses with immunisations which is why our children are given many injections during their early years to help them to produce and boost specific antibodies against known viruses such as measles, mumps and rubella. Later in life we can avoid specific infections transmitted during sexual encounters, both viral such as HIV and bacterial such as the very common chlamydia both of which can be avoided by the simple use of condoms. When we travel we can use vaccinations to boost our immunity against viruses such as hepatitis and bacteria such as those causing cholera and typhoid, more common abroad.

So remember, antibiotics are very potent medicines which work very well when used correctly and we need to preserve their benefits by using them wisely!