I’ve always been fascinated with the study of biology, when the “bug” hit me in 6th grade. I still remember the large, green biology book with microbes gracing the cover.
Today, I learned an interesting fact regarding measles; a surprising tidbit that was astonishing – the measles virus totally disrupts your immune system’s memory. As many of you know, every time your body is infected with a disease, your immune system registers it. In other words, your body builds an immunity to the strain, so the next time you’re exposed, you can fight off the attack. However, when you’re infected with measles, the nasty little critters “erase” the cells’ memory, so they no longer have a record of the diseases you’ve experienced. It’s like re-formatting a hard drive (all the stored information is erased), so your body experiences a reboot, and must start from scratch. Obviously, this has all kinds of repercussions, since now you must rebuild your entire immune system – you’re starting off as a newborn baby. However, there is one exception – your body will remember the measles virus, so you’ll never get measles again.
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