Western medicine has focused on the germ theory of disease for the past 150 years. In this model, infecting microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and other pathogens) are defined as the cause of illness. If you kill the germs you avoid or cure the diseases they produce. The idea is that germs are bad and that they are the cause of disease and ill health. "Killing germs" would be the solution to both treating and preventing states of disease. This explains the widespread use of vaccinations and antibiotics advocated by Western medicine. Louis Pasteur was considered the father of the germ theory. But another theory says that microbes can't cause infection unless conditions within the body encourage their growth and reproduction. If the body is a poor host, invading microbes can't take up residence and cause illness. This explains why in every epidemic, some recover, some die, some only have minor symptoms and some never become ill at all. The French scientist Antoine Bechamp advocated for the terrain theory. Read more....