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Yong Loo Lin
School of Medicine

Dirt and health

Published: 03 Aug 2017

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Many parents want clean, sterilised environments for their children. But while a certain degree of cleanliness and hygiene helps to maintain our children’s well-being and prevent communicable diseases, not exposing them to common microbes and bugs present in dirt leave them with a highly sensitive immune system that is more susceptible to inflammatory diseases and dangerous infectious agents. These can be serious and are no less dangerous than the infectious diseases children can catch from exposure to viruses, said Professor Hugo Van Bever from NUS Medicine’s Department of Paediatrics.

The challenge for parents and their children is to maintain an optimal balance between avoidance and exposure to germs.

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