In nature there are two categories of microorganisms as relating to health. Microorganisms that are considered harmful to humans are called pathogens and these cause disease. Examples include bacteria such as streptococcus which cause sore throat and salmonella which cause typhoid disease.
There are some microorganisms which are helpful to man and they live mostly on the skin of man or in his gut and are mostly bacteria. They are collectively called bacterial normal flora.
In man the normal bacterial flora of the skin include staphylococcus found on dry skin, cornybacteria found in moist skin sites and propionibacteria in the sebaceous sites (head, neck, trunk) of the body. Normal bacterial flora of the gut include Escherichia coli.
One of the major function of bacterial flora is actually to protect our bodies by competing for space with pathogens preventing them from gaining a foothold in our bodies.
