Paul ADEPOJU

If I get to the hospital any minute after eight, I'm going to be late, except it's a Thursday which happens to be the city's monthly environmental sanitation exercise. On this day of the week, dirts from the closets find their way to the main roads where they are picked up the state's environmental health officers.

It is worthy to note that the environmental sanitation exercise is quite recent. And if the volume of dirts that are packed is anything to go by, then the city actually deserves more than Thursdays to keep citizens clean and healthy. But we can't spend the better part of the week just cleaning. Very soon, there will be nothing to clean up.

I'm currently working with an health energy expert to come up with a recycling plan but that is not the focus of this post. I'm exploring good sides of accumulated dirts to health.

They always say cleanliness is next to godliness. Which is true. But have you ever wondered why the poor man rarely falls sick, or why children of poor parents fair better than the rich kids. The reason is simply innate immunity.

Innate immunity refers to the body's self protection measures to ward off infections and infectious agents. Take chickenpox for instance. Almost every patient that I'm aware of their medical condition didn't return to the health center with chickenpox. The first (and only) encounter with the virus is often strong enough to teach the body how protect itself in the future. This has been proven to be true.

Lots of protective vaccines act by the introduction of the causative agent into the body system. This entry elicits immunological reactions that attacks and destroys the invading organism, and configures the body against future occurrence. It is so simple and scientists often rely on this to help the body protect itself against foreign invasion.

Talking of dirts, lots of infective micro organisms are live in dirts and usually expect unsuspecting individuals to come in contact with the dirt in order for the (the organisms) to continue their own life cycle. Understanding this principle can help modulate the body system and make it more responsive to reacting against foreign organisms on its own without much external interventions with their associated side effects. But there is the need for caution.

There are organisms that we can't just expose ourselves to in order to raise our immunity. Doing so is both stupid and suicidal. But we can work on other subtle conditions. This can help in tackling the issue of resistance since circulating antibodies will be the agents cleansing the body system.

While lots of ethical issues are involved, I can't help but be amazed at how difficult it is for good hygiene to ensure good health while the filthy insane man that eats dungs, sleeps in the open and drinks urine still remain hale, strong and healthy. His life clearly shows that there is more to dirts than filthy scents. It's left to scientists to tap into this raw demeaning yet pluripotent world of dirts. This could be a cutting edge area of research in medicine, a sector that has exhausted almost all availble options.