• Question: What bacteria makes us sick?

    Asked by Moloney 66 to Chloe, Irene, Pierre, NULL, Uday on 7 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Hol.
    • Photo: Irene Regan

      Irene Regan answered on 7 Nov 2015:

      Sometimes bacteria make us feel sick and sometimes they don’t!!
      One example could be when you have a sore throat. This could be caused by a bacteria called in short “Strep”- you might see some white spots at the back of your mouth near your throat,this could make you feel very ill, sometimes and you might have to have an antibiotic to clear it up. Other times it mightn’t have any effect and not cause you a problem. Other times the sore throat is caused by a virus and you only need hot drinks and some rest:)

    • Photo: NULL

      NULL answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      I think mostly bacteria in the wrong place make you sick!

      Lots of bacteria do no harm, and even help you digest foods properly. But some of them, if they get into a cut or if you eat them can make you quite sick. But the same bacteria wouldn’t hurt you if they just live on your skin or in intestines.

    • Photo: Pierre Casaubielh

      Pierre Casaubielh answered on 10 Nov 2015:

      Around us, we are surrounded by bacteria…
      For example, everybody has bacteria on the skin, hair, and inside the body: These are the GOOD bacteria, because our body recognise them, and they help us being healthy [we could be seriously sick without them].

      And you have the other bacteria, coming from outside (soil, air, moisture …) that our body does not recognise; these are the BAD bacteria.
      When our body gets in contact with the BAD bacteria, it will build a defence, and that the reason we are filling sick: our body spends the energy fighting the BAD bacteria, to make sure we fill better.

      In summary, any bacteria that our body does not recognise as a friend could make sick.

    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 10 Nov 2015:

      Awesome question!

      Lots of bacteria have the potential to make us sick but whether or not they actually make us sick depends on a lot of different factors.

      It depends on the strain of bacteria… One example is Staphylococcus aureus, this bacteria lives in the noses of 1 out of every 3 people normally and doesn’t cause any problems for healthy people. However meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA for short is the hospital superbug that makes a lot of people sick. The reason these strains of Staphylococcus aureus are so bad is that the antibiotics that we use to treat infections by Staphylococcus aureus don’t work any more making it hard for doctors to treat people with this kind of infection.

      It depends on your immune system… If you are already fighting off another disease or there are other factors (like if you’ve had an organ transplant) your body may struggle to fight off an attack by a normally harmless bacteria. These types of bacteria are referred to as opportunistic pathogens.

      Your genes play a part too, scientists are looking into how our own genetics can influence our ability to interact with the bacteria that live in/on us and our ability to fight off infection.

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