As we evolved to become what we are today, a series of physiological systems

were adapting to an ever-changing environment thereby serving the well being

of the sum, us that is. Each systems vector of evolution is a sum of its reactions
to stimuli constantly subjected to change by the force of time. The vectors of
permanency and intensity of a change are subjected to many factors including
the interaction between the system and the changing stimulus on one hand, and
the interaction with the human on the other hand. This retrospectively analytic
approach, when applied to diseases in medicine, entails the immune system and
its response to the changes in stimuli over the last two centuries. However,
unlike the history of the Second World War, the history of our immune system is
not well documented. That might be due to limitations in technology, skills, and
facilities back then. Add this exponential growth science underwent made what
we know about the immune systems history of little use to research today.
However, entali

In a recent study by Eisen et al the immunes response to mycobacteria was

evaluated at high altitudes and at low altitudes. They incubated BCG (Bacillus
Calmette-Geurin) for six weeks in whole blood samples from subjects before and
after their ascent from low altitudes to 3400m and compared it to growth in
plasma, the negative control. It was six times and a stunning twenty five times
more likely for mycobacteria to grow in bloods of subjects living at high altitudes
and at low altitudes respectively than it was to grow in plasma. This elicits the
rapidly adapting nature of the immune system. And although these changes
were reversible, over the course of the last century or so, our immune system
must have drastically evolved and permanently changed. The stimuli to our
immune system have drastically changed over the course of the last years
through enhancements in antisepsis and sterilization, a great decrease in
infectious diseases and last but not least the discovery of the antibiotic. This
draws a couple of question as to what extent did these changes vary according
to region? What are the implications of this regional variation in certain diseases
epidemiology? And what are the insights that can be drawn about cancer and the
development of the cure?