Why are bacteriophage's harmful to people?

Answer 1

Only some bacteria are harmful. Those that are directly harmful are the ones that give us diseases called pathogens, pathogens either attack cells directly using them for food or produce some toxin that is harmful to your cells. Most bacteria are not true pathogens but opportunistic pathogens that will only attack if you are already in a weakened state. Bacteria can also be problematic in other ways; for example many bacteria are food spoilage organisms (like mold which is a fungus) that are perfectly safe to eat but ruin the quality of the food both aesthetically and in taste. The technique of 'pasteurization' was developed to kill these spoilage organisms in beer. Others can be pathogens that infect non-human animals or plants which we farm for food and there are probably more examples I have not thought of.

However your body is home to a huge range of symbiotic and non-symbiotic but non-harmful bacteria that make up the so called 'human microbiome'. In terms of cell number these outnumber your own cells by 10 to 1 and this is the case for most if not all higher organisms. Without these symbionts you could not properly digest much of the food you eat, and they also play a role in defense against pathogenic species, and probably many, many, many other roles that have not yet been discovered.

So while bacteria can cause significant problems for humans without them you or any higher organism could not survive.

Answer 2

Bacteria are microorganism which if enter in the human body then can alter its normal function by colonizing in human body and will start eating human cells as their nutrition which make us ill or diseased and can even cause death. Some human diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, are caused by bacteria.

Answer 3

When we think of bacteria there 2 types. The saprophytic(decomposers) and the pathogenic(bacteria that cause infection). Bacterial diseases in the past have killed many people, example - Tuberculosis(caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis or by a bacterium called mycobacterium Bovis), nowadays there are many antibiotics to prevent such diseases and so large numbers of cases have drastically dropped. Yet bacterial diseases still exists(like cholera which is caused due to a bacterium called salmonella) specially in poor countries and people get Infectious Diseases(diseases that spread from one person to another). Even STD (sexually transmitted diseases) caused by bacteria still exist, example - Gonorrhoea(caused by the bacterium Nisseria).

Hope this helped :)

- Hasith Dissanayake....

Answer 4

Bacteriophages specifically infect bacteria, not human cells. They are harmless to humans and can actually be beneficial in certain situations, such as in phage therapy where they are used to treat bacterial infections.

Answer 5

bacteriophage are not harmful to people.