All About Germs
Germs (or pathogens) are tiny microscopic organisms that can cause disease. And no matter where you go on the planet, you won’t escape them...because they’re everywhere, including right now all over your body.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are four major types of germs - bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa - and all of them can make you sick. They invade every living organism including animals, plants, and people.
When a harmful germ (like the H1N1 virus or more common flu bug) gets into your body - most often through your eyes, nose, mouth, or a cut or abrasion - it consumes nutrients and energy so it can produce and release toxic waste. These toxins cause the symptoms you experience when you get sick, such as fever, coughing, sneezing and runny nose.
Germ History
For thousands of years, people died without anyone knowing why. Not until scientists discovered “microorganisms” (too tiny to see without a microscope) did we realize that germs cause disease. Here are some milestones in the history of germs.
1796: Edward Jenner discovers how to inoculate people against Smallpox, a deadly epidemic. This is the beginning of the study of immunology.
1842: Edwin Chadwick publishes a report which affirms the importance of environmental conditions to good health.
1862: Louis Pasteur publishes his germ theory in which infections are caused by living organisms. He calls the bacteria which cause these infections “germs.”
1864: Louis Pasteur’s work with bacteria leads to his invention of “pasteurization” (heat is used to kill germs) for wine and foods.
1882: Robert Koch discovers the germ that causes tuberculosis. He also proves definitively that bacteria causes many diseases.
1892: Dmitri Ivanovski discovers viruses, years before an electron microscope is invented to actually see them.
1918: A virulent strain of flu (the Flu Pandemic) kills more than 20 million people throughout the world; more than all the deaths from WWII.
1929: Sir Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin, the first antibiotic to treat serious diseases in humans.
1946: The United States creates what is now called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
1980: A global vaccination program wipes out the Smallpox virus, the first virus ever to be made extinct by man.
1981: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) begins killing people in the U.S., Europe, and Africa.
2003: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spreads throughout the world in only three months.
2008: MyClyns becomes available to EMS, fire, police, corrections and health care workers.
2009: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the H1N1 virus (or swine flu) a “public health emergency of international concern.” A vaccination is expected in the Fall of 2009.