SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERSPECIES AND INTRASPECIES INTERACTIONS OF MICROORGANISMS AS A SUB-ORGANISM LEVEL IN THE HIERARCHY OF THE EPIDEMIC PROCESS
In the modern period, the epidemic process is considered as a complex multi-level system, which includes a suborganism level (tissue, cellular, molecular), organismic and socio-ecosystem (population). In the human population, many pathogenic microorganisms circulate and cause disease in humans at the same time. As a rule, they exist in an associated state - a universal phenomenon for the vast majority of representatives of the microworld. Nevertheless, the possibility of interrelationships between them and their reflection in the development of the epidemic process and its manifestations, as a rule, is not taken into account. In the present work, based on an analysis of publications on the results of our own research by the authors and world literature, it is shown that at the sub-organism level of the epidemic process there is an active inter- and intraspecies interaction between representatives of different types of microorganisms, realized through integration-competitive mechanisms. This interaction is reflected both at the organism and population levels of epidemic process. Therefore, when conducting epidemiological studies, it is necessary to use an integrative approach that takes into account processes taking place at a suborganism level. Understanding the fact that microorganisms actively interact with each other will significantly increase our ability to develop new approaches to protect organism from infections, as well as adequately predict the occurrence and time of the development of epidemics.