Question: how many germs are in your body right now?

Lucy McGowan answered on 13 Jul 2020:

Fantastic question Jack! Germs are thought of as pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites) which enter your body and can cause disease. Some “bad” bacteria can cause diseases and these germs increase in number as the infection gets worse! Humans can also carry viruses which make them poorly, but can also sometimes be carrying viruses without showing any symptoms. For that reason hard to put an exact number on.
However, bacteria is actually super important to us, as our bodies rely on lots of “good” bacteria to keep us healthy and strong. Lots of these bacteria live in the gut and on the skin. There are actually about 100 trillion bacteria in the human body. This means that for every human cell in your body, there are around 10 bacterial cells! That’s pretty amazing I think – you are technically more bacteria than you are human!