Viral Infection

"I try to sleep, but it's difficult. If I lie on my left side, my left nostril clogs up; if I turn to the right, the right one does. In my throat, I feel a mixture of itching and burning. All the time I wonder: when will this horrible flu go away?"

And José kept thinking about his condition until the effect of an exhausting day's work under fever made him fall asleep. But while José slept his uncomfortable sleep, many things he had no idea were happening were operating in his body...

"Oh crap! Here come those external agents to dictate the rules of how our community should function!" Golgi Complex shouted.

"Well, what can we do if the nuclei follow their rules, believing in the improvement of cellular production? I don't believe it, and to tell the truth, I've heard that some whole cells have been destroyed due to the excess production of foreign material, and for the foreigner!" said a small Lysosome.

"Exactly, Lysosome, these viruses have no respect for the locals, they come here just to take advantage, inhibit our production, and start to do their own, without any knowledge of our needs, and then we still run the risk of them consuming us to exhaustion, leaving us at the mercy of Enzymes and their grim work of getting rid of our dead bodies."

"Oh, Golgi Complex and Lysosome, I'm surprised you have such a distorted idea of recent events! What I know is that external agents improve the lives of many cells out there; we will remain underdeveloped forever if they don't come and give us a hand. I even recognize the fact that some viruses are not very ethical, but they are being identified, and it will be demanded that they improve their action, but even so, their action is not so negative, since it gives work to the Leukocytes that had been somewhat inactive some time ago."

"It is soon apparent how Mr. Centriole is deceiving," said Mitochondria, a worker in the energy production area. "The Leukocytes were quite active performing the daily cleaning of the organism, now they are like crazy trying to reduce the damage caused by the viruses. And I hope that some of the Leukocytes will follow in a more radicalized way and expel these viruses from the organism soon."

"You, Mitochondria, are an uncritical radical! These crazy Leukocytes that you admire so much, instead of doing their job, are acting against the progress of the organism, and they must be stopped before they cause real damage to the system as a whole. Don't you understand that in order to progress, we need some sacrifice, and let's be realistic, production has increased enormously in the cells where it is now managed by viruses."

"The only question, and one that you forget to mention, is what is the use of this production, and why does it bring us any advancement! After all, all production has the sole function of expanding the empire of viruses to other cells!"

"But you don't have patience, improvement comes slowly, soon we will be able to recognize the results!"

And the meeting of the viruses with the cellular nucleus came to an end. The anxious organelles awaited the nucleus to proclaim the decision. And so it was done:

"After a long conversation with the gentlemen present here, I have decided that it will be advantageous for the whole community to adhere to the production system that the viruses proposed to me."

The organelles spoke up, agitated, contested. The nucleus asked for calm and then began to explain the advantages that the association would bring.The arguments were not very different from Centriole's arguments, but it was Nucleus, the central administrator, who said them. Gradually, the Organelles calmed down and peace returned to reign in the cell. Some, of course, persisted in their rebellion, but they could not fight alone.

But José woke up, it was still four o'clock in the morning and he only needed to get up at five.
"Cough, cough! Arrrrghh! Chiiiiiinn! Eww! This flu is terrible! I hope my body can get rid of it as soon as possible, before I have to miss work and have my pay deducted! Ah! Darn it, I have a fever! That's why my eyes feel heavy! I'll take a quick antipyretic, maybe there's still time to lower the temperature."
After two hours, José felt a little better. Already dressed in his uniform, he took the bus to the Nestlé factory, in Brazil, where he works in the cleaning area.

Mariana Affonso Penna, 2004.