>I've searched the archives and found one posting regarding the sequestering
>of iron during an illness.

Look in your local university library for:

Diet, Demography, and Disease : Changing Perspectives of Anemia (Foundations
of Human Behavior)  by Patricia Stuart-MacAdam, Susan Kent (Editor)

Also try a Medline search on author = Eugene Weinberg

Bacteria need iron to reproduce.  The body's defenses against bacterial
infection include sequestering iron during infections, and running fevers,
because the bacteria have more difficulty processing iron and reproducing at
high temperatures.

Much of "feeling bad" during an infection is the immune systems response to
the disease, not the disease itself.  I had a nasty drawn-out head cold
following radiation treatment, but I felt great through the whole thing
because my immune system wasn't functioning very well.

Kathy Dettwyler

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