Here is some good news!
Researchers in the United States believe they have discovered why flu and other respiratory viruses are more prevalent in winter.
Flu can actually cause death, especially in children and the elderly, and of course, it can mutate into even more deadly strains.
But apparently the researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) say influenza viruses coat themselves in a fatty protein called HEMAGGLUTININ, that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures.
They suggest that this may be the reason why winter is the flu season.
It seems the fatty coating around the virus melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells. Apparently it is this special fatty insulator which gives them an advantage in the cold temperatures of the winter.
When the influenza viruses are in a warm environment such in summer, they die quickly and are usually less able to infect more than one person.
The head of the research, Joshua Zimmerberg, says it is only in this liquid phase that the flu virus is capable of entering a cell to infect it.
It will be interesting to see how this affects the way we fight the flu now, whether the vaccines really are effective, or if some other way can be found to fight flu.
To read the full article on the flu, go here:
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=35829
