[Gay State Conservative]

Anyone who’s been to China...even recently...knows how dirty that country is.The only reason I can think of to explain the fact that the “natives” don’t die by the tens of millions from bacteria and viruses contracted in those filthy surroundings is that their immune systems are so accustomed to it that they can survive conditions that would kill folks from civilized countries within 12 hours.

[trisham]

I’ve never been to China, but I’ve been to the restrooms of Chinese restaurants.

[metmom]

Anyone who’s been to China...even recently...knows how dirty that country is.The only reason I can think of to explain the fact that the “natives” don’t die by the tens of millions from bacteria and viruses contracted in those filthy surroundings is that their immune systems are so accustomed to it that they can survive conditions that would kill folks from civilized countries within 12 hours.

You're right on that.

I had a friend who was a nurse who worked in Africa and she made the same observation some 35 years ago. Told me that there were people walking around with infections that would have killed an American a long time before.

Either their immune system is strengthened as you say, or it's survival of the fittest because the weak don't survive infancy or childhood.