Home > Health
  Wings of a Fly: The New Buzz of Antibiotics
  Written By:  Mona Al-Raqas ( Yemen Post Staff )
  Article Date: December 17, 2007 

 

The last thing that might come to mind is that we can find antibiotics on the surface of flies.  over a thousand years ago, Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) said: "If a fly falls down to your vessel, drown it then remove it, for one of its wings has the ailment and the other has the cure," [narrated by Al-Bokhari] Through this Hadith, it has been clear that a fly has bacteria in one of its wings and has the antibacterial defense in the other wing.

People of other religions found it somehow strange and difficult to believe that Muslims drown the fly into their food as they considered it something unacceptable. They believed that flies carry only diseases, and drowning it into food or drink is an unreasonable action. Although flies live on decayed food and garbage where bacteria, germs and microbes exist, Allah made the miracle on the right wing of the fly. He, the Almighty, creates the antibiotics that help annihilating all these viruses.  

In Australia, a team from the Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, worked on a research to prove that flies have remarkable antimicrobial defenses. The team's leader, Dr. Joanne Clarke proved this discovery through a number of experiments.

"Our research is a small part of a global research effort for new antibiotics, but we are looking where we believe no-one has looked before,” said Dr. Clarke, who presented the team’s findings at the Australian Society for Microbiological Conference in Melbourne.

She added, "We are now trying to identify the specific antibacterial compounds which will be chemically synthesized from the surface of the flies."

Another researcher from Tokyo University, Dr. Juan Alvarez Bravo confirms that in the near future "people will be astonished to find that flies are being used as antibiotics in the hospitals."

He also assures that scientists are working on the flies to get a number of effective remedies for different diseases. 

Working on this theory, scientists found that getting the remedy from flies is strange but acceptable in science. Other researchers from the United States are trying to find anti-pathogenetic ways from the flies. They also note that having the cure from the flies will be something reasonably acceptable by people the coming few years.

Researchers from Auburn University discovered a kind of protein in the saliva of the fly with ability to help recover wounds and cracked skin. Likewise, researchers from Stanford University discovered a fly substance with ability to strengthen the immunity system in human beings.

According to scientists, there is a big similarity between the heart of a fly and that of a human being, prompting them to use flies to produce a medicament for the human heart diseases.  

Again, many scientists agree that flies carry lots of diseases but never get infected because of the antimicrobial defenses found in one of their wings. 

A laboratory technician Dr. Abdulhakim al- Qobati pointed out that "this is a heavenly miracle from Allah the Almighty to put the disease and the cure in a tiny creature such as the fly."

He also clarified that the fly is a simple way to transfer diseases due to the environment that the fly used to live in. Allah Creates both the remedy and the disease in the two wings of this fly to show His Supreme Power, explained al-Qobati.

When a fly has various harmful bacteria, it needs something defensible to continue its survival and that is why Allah creates the antibacterial supplies in its body.  A fly puts its saliva into food as soon as it touches it. The fly makes some movements by its limbs from its head to its mouth to put the bacteria. Through these movements, it transfers the microbes and germs to food.    

Researches and scientists proved that in the flies' stomach there are some parasites in the form of circular cells. These cells contain of a specific enzyme. In no time, those cells spread out to the surface of the fly through the joints of its stomach. Due to an inner pressure of each cell (caused for example by drowning the fly), it explodes and results its contents in a form of a liquid spray of this enzyme which has strong properties and abilities to dissolve all microbes. By drowning the fly, the inner pressure of the cell is occurred, so the enzyme will come out and kill all the bacteria caused by the fly and this is why Islam demands drowning the fly.

The discoveries of modern researches have been revealed in the Holy Qura'n long ago, "O men! Here is a parable set forth! Listen to it! Those on whom, besides Allah, ye call, cannot create (even) a fly, if they all met together for the purpose! And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to realize it from the fly. Feeble are those who petition and those whom they petition!” [Sura al-Haj, verse 73]

Hundred thousands of flies' types exist in the universe; however, just ten types share us living in our houses. The female fly lays down more than hundred eggs in the dung of some animals or in the garbage. After one day, the larva comes out and feeds by the surrounding environment. Two weeks later, they become full-grown flies. In four generations, one fly can lay down 1.5 million eggs, but fortunately, the majority dies due to weather circumstances or becomes food for birds and other insects.  Maximally, a fly can live for sixty days.