Body's Battles

Abstract

"War makes rattling good history" so said Oscar Wilde. He .was of course referring to the macroscopic struggles engaged in by nations to capture new territories or to merely retain old ones. These conflicts are highly visible and now, with ready help from the electronic media, brought to one's family room. But some other battles not visible to the naked eye, even with technological aids, are equally fascinating. A vivid account of these miniscule wars fought within the confines of the human body would be equally breathtaking if only for the fact that these are quite literally "life and death" struggles. And they are fought every single living moment. The body's sentinels cannot afford to lower their guard even for the brief moment it takes to bat an eyelid, such is the cunning, guile and multitude of the microbial enemies. It would be unfair though to crib about man having been placed in such a hostile environment all alone and without a shield. For nature has endowed the human body with a built-in defence organiza-tion that can be the envy of the most modern technologically advanced nation. The intricate network of checks and balan-ces to keep the armed forces fighting fit at all times, the diversity of the armament, resulting in weapons tailor-made to defeat the enemy, and the sophistry of strategy making it possible to meet squarely every imaginable threat make the defence of the human body a unique operation. Having learnt about this most valuable gift of nature man has used his knowledge to strengthen the defence and hone its com-batworthiness even further. That is why, notwithstanding the occasional snafu, the body emerges victorious in its battle most of the time.