Border Security

We are under attack. They drum this into us with each lecture, terrifying us with the commonality of disease both internal and external. Our bodies are large and complicated, and a remarkable amount of energy and time is devoted to beating back the waves of invaders trying to capitalize on the resources we have so carefully hoarded in our own flesh.

Our skin is the first and best defense against all of these barbarous microbes, a hard barrier requiring luck, dedication, or a few anti-connective tissue enzymes to break through. In a testament to its efficacy, our skin is literally swimming with opportunistic buggers waiting for their chance to cross our borders. No matter how clean we are, the reality of day to day life is that we will be firmly colonized, bacterial parasites mooching off of the waste products exuded from our pores. This is not limited to our friendly flora, the Escheria Coli and Streptococcus Viridans that only induce disease when our internal social order breaks down. Staphylococcus Epidermis, that spheroid aggregating bastard, swarms all over the skin of the majority of human beings. It sits there waiting patiently, biding its time until a puncture gives it a way inside. The bane of drug addicts and hospital patients (both a population known for being stuck by needles) S. Epidermis rides the needles inside us, where it can negatively impact us in a myriad of ways. The drug user sees a tendency towards endocarditis, an infection of the interior lining of the heart. The hospital patient is equally subject to this, but can also see the formation of biofilms on the inside of catheters or IV lines. These biofilms become toxin factories, dumping anti-social peptides into your system.

This bacteria is so prevalent that we often have to draw blood from two locations to do diagnostic tests for infection, because of the significant likelihood that S. Epidermis shows up on one, drawn in when the needle perforated skin.

We exist in a hostile world, and when we tell you to wash your hands, we mean it.