What a great idea: a bandage that tells you when what it is hiding, is itself hiding something –an infection.  http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34808273

I suppose it was an idea looking for a platform. When bacteria are growing, they often invent ways to keep doing just that. Sometimes they overwhelm by sheer numbers to defeat the body’s defences, at other times it’s toxins that break down tissues and help them invade. The body, for it’s part, has its own bag of tricks. In the end, infections are often simply a kind of parry and thrust contest –a fencing match, if you will.

Most bodies are not unduly challenged by wounds, however –keep them clean and cover them with some sort of dressing, and they heal. Antibiotics are seldom required. The problem, of course, is that sometimes the foes are not evenly matched. People on immune suppressants (transplant patients), or those with already compromised immune systems –whether from disease or immaturity (babies, for example)- may not be able to mount a suitable response to bacteria in a wound and are at risk of severe infections. These are the ones in whom a timely and appropriate antibiotic would be prudent.

Sometimes, though, antibiotics are used like soap: if it looks dirty, or if it might turn out to be dirty, why not use an antibiotic? Just in case. Well, the simple answer is that the body is usually pretty good at dealing with bacteria. After all, we are all exposed to bacteria from day zero. It starts with the journey down the obviously non-sterile birth canal, and progresses to crawling along things, tasting things… none of which could be said to be free of bacteria of some sort or other. Bacteria are what we do, where we live… Bacteria live in our mouths, in our bowels, on our skin. There are more bacteria in our intestines than cells in our bodies; we simply cannot get rid of them all.

Nor should we. I’ve written before about the benefit of these usually commensal creatures and the benefits they provide both for continuing health and development: https://musingsonwomenshealth.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/the-human-microbiome/

But let’s not be naïve about bacteria –they don’t give a fig about us -they are amoral. A bacterium prefers to live with others –family. They grow and prosper with no regard for boundaries or house rules. Without suitable checks and balances they would take over. Like pouring water in a cup -too much and it merely overflows the constraints and moves on. That’s an infection. That’s when the body may need some help.

The trick is obviously intervening when it is necessary, but monitoring when it is not. Why? Well, treating every wound, say, with an antibiotic might get rid of the truly sensitive bacteria, but leave behind those that don’t respond quite as easily or quickly. The result of the treatment may therefore be to select for those bacteria that don’t mind the antibiotic –the resistant organisms. That’s how it happens.

So in those people who may not be able to deal with bacteria efficiently, it would be helpful to know when –or if– to intervene. That’s where the bandage that changes colour when bacteria in wounds begin to proliferate and infect would be helpful. There are other ways, of course: the old Latin aphorism I was taught in medical school, for example: Tumor, Dolor, Rubor, Calor – Swelling, Pain, Redness (inflammation), Warmth (infection). But sometimes it’s nice to have another tool in the kit that may detect a problem earlier -before these signs are present. Or, in the case of a body incapable of even producing the signs- when an infection would be catastrophic.

Clearly a lot of work needs to be done to detect the mischief of different types of bacteria –they don’t all produce toxins, and even if they did, there would likely be differences in their structures that would have to be accounted for in the detection mechanism. But this may be the bandage of the future –a Facebook band aid that is constantly posting. Almost like refrigerators that tell you what you need, or coffee pots that turn on when they hear the toilet flush in the morning. A brave new world.

It is ‘a hit’, as Osric, a courtier, says of Hamlet’s thrust as he is dueling with Laertes, ‘a very palpable hit.’ Let us hope so.