LAUSR

As we are moving forward in the 21st century, we are being confronted with myriad manifestations of microbial infections and the strict frontier between communicable and noncommunicable diseases is being breached now and again. The association of viruses and certain parasites with malignancies is well established, and the discovery of Helicobacter pylori in the last century was a great turning point. The new kid in town who is now the talk of the scientific town is the gut microbiome. A flurry of research activities in this new field has established that gut microbiota is an important regulator of host metabolism. The microbial metabolites can influence a plethora of life processes, and any disturbance in the gut microbiome (dysbiosis) can have pathological consequences in the individual. Gut dysbiosis is associated with disruption of the gut homeostasis which can lead to various noncommunicable diseases since microbiota‐derived metabolites are either depleted or generated at harmful concentrations. This provides a theoretical framework for linking microorganisms to noncommunicable diseases.[1] A great majority of protozoan and helminth parasites have their residence in the human gut and may produce devastating alterations in the normal commensal flora of the intestine. The changes may be imperceptible in acute infections, but a quantum change in the overall body homeostasis can occur in chronic infections.