Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?

Intuitively, keeping ones distance from a source of infection would appear to be the best way to limit the occurrence of disease. However, this overlooks the importance of repeated infections in maintaining efficient immune defenses. When acquired immunity has partly waned, re-exposure to the pathog...

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Autores principales:	David Fouchet, John O'Brien, Dominique Pontier
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e378aad4d4594b16953ebdd5fd840518
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e378aad4d4594b16953ebdd5fd8405182021-11-25T06:12:14ZVisiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0002299https://doaj.org/article/e378aad4d4594b16953ebdd5fd8405182008-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/18523551/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Intuitively, keeping ones distance from a source of infection would appear to be the best way to limit the occurrence of disease. However, this overlooks the importance of repeated infections in maintaining efficient immune defenses. When acquired immunity has partly waned, re-exposure to the pathogenic agent may lead to mild disease that boosts the immune system. This prevents the total loss of immunity that would lead to classical disease in cases of re-infection. Here, using a mathematical model, we show that avoiding the pathogenic agent is detrimental in some situations, e.g. for pathogens that are highly transmissible, are not excessively lethal and that induce rapidly waning immunity. Reducing exposure to pathogenic agents is among the objectives of most, if not all, public health measures. A better understanding of the factors influencing the severity of a disease is required before applying measures that reduce the circulation of pathogenic agents.David FouchetJohn O'BrienDominique PontierPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 6, p e2299 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q David Fouchet John O'Brien Dominique Pontier Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
description	Intuitively, keeping ones distance from a source of infection would appear to be the best way to limit the occurrence of disease. However, this overlooks the importance of repeated infections in maintaining efficient immune defenses. When acquired immunity has partly waned, re-exposure to the pathogenic agent may lead to mild disease that boosts the immune system. This prevents the total loss of immunity that would lead to classical disease in cases of re-infection. Here, using a mathematical model, we show that avoiding the pathogenic agent is detrimental in some situations, e.g. for pathogens that are highly transmissible, are not excessively lethal and that induce rapidly waning immunity. Reducing exposure to pathogenic agents is among the objectives of most, if not all, public health measures. A better understanding of the factors influencing the severity of a disease is required before applying measures that reduce the circulation of pathogenic agents.
format	article
author	David Fouchet John O'Brien Dominique Pontier
author_facet	David Fouchet John O'Brien Dominique Pontier
author_sort	David Fouchet
title	Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
title_short	Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
title_full	Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
title_fullStr	Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
title_full_unstemmed	Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
title_sort	visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/e378aad4d4594b16953ebdd5fd840518
work_keys_str_mv	AT davidfouchet visitingsickpeopleisitreallydetrimentaltoourhealth AT johnobrien visitingsickpeopleisitreallydetrimentaltoourhealth AT dominiquepontier visitingsickpeopleisitreallydetrimentaltoourhealth
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Visiting sick people: is it really detrimental to our health?

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