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There are different types of bug. We are COVERED with bacteria, viruses and mites. We couldn't digest our food without them. Babies' stomachs get bacteria which help them digest breast milk within minutes of birth. We also need to have them to give our immune systems something to work on that's why playing in the dirt and so on is better than being too clean.

Then there are the bacteria which live on us and are usually benign but can cause illness if they get into the wrong place. A third of us are living quite happily with meningitis bugs in our noses because it is only if they get into the meninges of the brain that they make you ill.

MRSA is a strain of a bug that is everywhere on the skin. It gives you boils and spots if it gets the chance and can get into the blood stream too to cause cellulitis and erysipelas. But with the resistance to the antibiotics it can get deeper into the body and can't be got rid of easily. There is a difference between having it on your skin and it causing you illness o being MRSA positive on a swab isn't to say you will be ill. It isn't always hospital acquired either. My mum was +ve when she went into hospital because of needing lots of antibiotics.

We have forgotten what infections can do since we have had antibiotics and vaccinations.

Food poisoning is caused by certain bugs that live in foodstuffs. If they are there and get a chance to multiply, they will make you ill. There are more of them about nowadays because of the movement of people. When you go on holiday you bring foreign bugs back. This didn't happen years ago.

And our food travels further so the chances of you meeting a bug you have no resistance to is higher.

Also we meet lots of people living in cities rather than villages so the bug you had last month can pass through lots of people and then come back to you changed into something your body can't recognise so you get ill again.

It's not something to worry obsessively about, just a few sensible precautions, like washing your hands will make a big difference but we are complacent about microbes - doctor training only consists of a couple of lectures now, so it pays to be careful.

I'm writing this because I know most of you posting are careful about where you get your food and how it is prepared so you are safe enough leaving yours out for a while, but many people read this forum and may not be so clued up, especially youngsters and I would hate them to get the wrong message.

Alison