• Question: which germ could effect life the most in a bad way?

    Asked by drsweetman to Michelle on 15 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Michelle Linterman

      Michelle Linterman answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      Thanks for the question drsweetman, it is quite a tricky one though! Normally the immune system, all of your white blood cells, do a pretty good job of fighting germs. Germs become more of a problem when the immune system isn’t working very well, like when people get older.

      But every now and again there is a germ that turns up that our immune system just doesn’t seem to be able to fight very well and cause massive death and disease in the population. For example in 1918 there was a type of flu that killed 1 in 5 people it infected. As you know people can get the flu every year, and most will be fine.

      The problem is, we can’t always predicit which germs will be the worst until they have infected lots of people. This is why there can be quite a scare about things like bird flu that they think will be really really bad for humans.

      I hope this helps answer your question, please let me know if you would like some more information.

      Michelle

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