WHEN it comes to the bacteria that lurk in hospitals, toilets and kitchens, we are at war. Germs must be shown no mercy. They must be destroyed.
In recent years we have also become used to the idea that not all bacteria are our enemies. The term 鈥渇riendly bacteria鈥� is often used. Our colon relies on these bacteria to digest food 鈥� housing nine times as many as there are human cells in the body. Indeed, ancient unions between microbes once fashioned the complex cells in our body.
Now extraordinary possibilities for medicine have emerged from exploiting our intimate relationship with bacteria (see 鈥淔aecal transplant eases symptoms of Parkinson鈥檚鈥�). Now that faecal transplants could be used to treat autoimmune diseases we can鈥檛 regard microbes with contempt, or even affection. Instead, they deserve our greatest respect.
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