How best can we fight bacteria and keep ourselves out of harms way?

Depends on the bacteria. Many bacteria are entirely necessary. In fact the human body contains at least 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells!

As far as I know my 2 sons in Germany never had a prescription of Antibiotics and they are now 52 and 50 years old. Reason? When they were toddlers, they played outside the entire day and came home very dirty sometimes and with red cheeks and tired. With other words - the Immune System builts up immunity against all kinds of bacteria early on. Secondly, they got breast-fed as babies. With mothers milk they get a very strong Immune System and are set up for good health.

That being done, they did not have to worry anymore. They never had a bad cold or the flu. As teenagers, they swam in icy waters, kayaked in whitewater and hiked in the mountains, never smoked.
The Immune System has to be healthy, through life style and food and environment. Being "squeaky clean" all the time by taking showers frequently does not help fight bacteria because it weakens the defense system of the skin. I think by now everybody got my point. Prevention is the answer. I use hand sanitizer only when I touched too many things outside of my home, like shopping.

besides the obvious which is hygine,people should stop misusing antibiotics as your body becomes imune to them if you use them incorrectly +5

Washing your hands often is the best thing you can do in that regard Suby. Wash them often and thoroughly. I have read that 70% of bacteria can be kept away from us simply by washing our hands frequently! :)

Best way to keep yourself away from pathogenic bacteria is wash your hands.

Hand washing and showering regularly.
+4

This question is interesting.
1) Why fight bacteria?
2) What is good and bad bacteria?
3) What's being done?

1) There is a lot of talk about bacteria and how its harmful. Whilst its true that some can harm people, its also the case that very little of the bacteria people normally come in contact do real harm. The opposite it true.

2) Without bacteria we couldn't live - end of story. From the bacteria in our gut to that which reside on our skin, they serve as a protection from other bacteria that do not help us. The balance of good and bad bacteria in the intenstines is part of the immune system, and is necessary for proper digestion. Any change in that and you can have serious problems.

3) Antibacteria handsoaps, massive antibiotic feeding to animals & fish along with over prscription of such to people - especially in the US - harm everyone. Just to give an example,
many US doctors prescribe these things for ear problems w/o checking for a bacterial infection, and without giving the child time to fight the infection himself. The reality is that rarely is there any infection at all caused by bactera in the ear, and giving those medicines do have side effects to the child, and the other is that bacteria that happen to be in the body develop resistance to the medicine. Also, good bacteria in the gut die, and if this happens a lot, the child can have other problems.

Compare that to the same issue in Europe - especially Sweeden - where children likewise hav high incidents of ear aches; doctors rarely prescribe anitbiotics, and when they feel its necessary, they perfom a test. Need I mention the soar throats, colds and other misuses of this? Some sore throats do require this, but a tst is necessary and as for colds, that's not effective at all. Virus is different, so unless there is a bacterial infection, then parents demanding medicine from the doctor actually hurt their children in this case.

As for animals, they cannot naturally live in large numbers together, and any attempt to group then in wharhouses or fish farms by the hundreds or thousands rquire the use of antibiotics. This means several things 1) the bacteria develop rsistance, bcome more difficult to fight, and new medicine must be developed (not easy to do) and 2) its quite possible that your consumption of that animal or its milk will contain small traces of such medicine. Do you think that will affect you?

Knowing what bacteria do and what they don't do and how they play a vital role in life is necessary. If you want to keep yourself out of harms way, learn about this topic. I don't like the wording of this qustion at all.

There's one source you can read if you're interested:
You can read herehttp://books.google.com/books?id=yNFN1OpnkBkC&dq=fast+food+nation&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=T3qvSvSNCMnUkAWQ35GVBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Wash hands often, keep home clean, stay away from hospitals, and use hand sanitizer when out in public.