Current Status

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Current Status

The World Health Organization (WHO) is fully aware of the crucial importance of good hygiene. In an era of change and development, hygiene problems are seen as assuming the proportions of a plague.

Demographic Growth
It is estimated there will be 9.5 billion people by the year 2050. With nearly 90 million births every year, such population growth increases the risk of disease spreading between individuals. This hazard is further aggravated by overpopulation in certain parts of the world. Migrating groups or individuals also add to the danger of disease. Each year, nearly 110 million people move temporarily or permanently from one country to another, encouraging introduction of new micro-organisms in previously uncontaminated areas. Propagation will accelerate all the more because 65% of world population now live in cities, hotbeds of cross-contamination and it seems that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

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Modern Lifestyles
Changes in the modern way of life have also highlighted the everyday dangers of contamination.
Modern man consumes food from many sources and without sufficient safeguards, often from countries of origin with varying standards of hygiene. The fashion for raw or fast-cooked food, as well as frozen food, further increases the dangers.

The more new drugs come on to the market, the more people are consuming them. Now, the growing use of antibiotics has a direct impact on the resistance of germs to ordinary treatments.

Millions of people travel throughout the world each year carrying ever more drug-resistant germs. This has significantly raised the possibility of contaminating a place which had previously been free of a disease and against which local inhabitants are not protected.

People at Risk
The number of people with low and no immunity is growing. This is mainly due to continued increase in life expectancy, the appearance of some illnesses and treatments such as transplants, where the use of associated drugs reduces resistance to infection.
Among people at risk are also babies, whose immune system does not develop until a few months after birth, and pregnant women, who must be careful that nothing interferes with the good development of the embryo.

Microbiological Knowledge
"Microbial menace", what does this imply?
Research and the formidable advances of the last century have allowed us to identify the day-to-day dangers of germs. In particular, we have now realized that a distinction should be made between germs and disease. In fact, only a small number of germs are detrimental to health: these are called pathogenic. But the huge majority of germs are non-pathogenic and present no danger to humans.
Some of them are very useful. They are found in intestinal flora, in many foods such as yoghurt, bread and some cheeses; others help purify organic waste or secrete substances from which drugs are made. There benefits are numerous and contribute to the development and well being of society.

A large number of these micro-organisms are catalogued, and new ones are soon added to the list, especially if they are pathogens.

Micro-organisms can be classified into families:

• Bacteria - Unicellular organisms in a variety of shapes such as cylindrical, spherical, comma, etc. Measuring one to two µm they contain a single chromosome. They multiply by swelling then splitting in two. Examples include staphylococcus, enterococcus, streptococcus.

• Virus - Between 0.03 and 0.3 µm in size. Composed of an outer protein shell (capsid) and nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), they are not autonomous and multiply by injecting their nucleic content into the DNA of the host cells, which then produce a new virus.Examples include poxvirus, herpes simplex virus, parvovirus.
  
  

• Fungi - Sizes vary considerably. Microscopic fungi can be single or multi-cell organisms (yeast is only formed from one cell) close to plants, but without chlorophyll. Some live in symbiosis with their hosts while others prove difficult parasites to eliminate. They generally multiply by sporulation. Examples include yeasts and mildew.
  
  
• Prions - A source of many questions, prions are a peptide chain composed of about 250 amino-acids.Prions are characterized by the ability of the pathogenic form to transmit their properties, through protein-to-protein interaction to the normal isoform of the same protein.
  This can manifest itself through infection and selective destruction of nerve cells in mammals. Current knowledge is not advanced enough to sufficiently explain how prions develop.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Protozoa - Complex single-cell micro-organisms, measuring 3 to 40 µm. They contain specific systems to absorb and digest food as well as for moving. They reproduce generally by way of several parasitic hosts, e.g trypanosomes, leishmanias, amoeba.

• Parasites - Parasites do not constitute a family. The term encompasses micro-organisms and organisms which develop at the expense of a host. Parasites can be fungi, algae as well as animals of different sizes, such as lice, mites and even worms.
  Examples are candidiasis, scabies, tapeworm, fluke, etc.
  

  
  

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