MRSA Notes

This is a topic that we could probably talk about all day long - from about 100 different angles - but it is very interesting news.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that mice with a herpes virus infection seem to have better resistance to bacterial infections.  The long and short of it is that the presence of the herpes virus in the bodies of mice seem to put their immune system in “on guard” mode - ready and able to fight intruders.  The herpes virus in mice is very similar to the one in humans, so this is potentially a significant finding. [source]

The questions arise as we try to fight and eliminate the herpes virus, which has infected a reported 50% of the population (and I truly expect the real numbers - unreported - will show a tremendously higher percentage).  This virus doesn’t show any symptoms in a tremendous number of people who have it, doesn’t appear to do any long term damage to the body systems and if it isn’t making people sick and IS helping to combat other potential problems - is it a bad thing?

What do you think?  I think more research on this topic is definitely needed myself.  It doesn’t look like the herpes virus is going anywhere anytime soon - it comes in so many different flavors (herpes simplex I and II, chicken pox, shingles and many other lesser known forms), and we haven’t gotten anywhere with it so far - perhaps we can learn to embrace it.  Who knows? 

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