Scientists Figured Out Why Winter is Flu Season

Posted by Alex in Medicine, Science & Tech on March 3, 2008 at 5:17 pm


Ever wonder why winter is flu season? Well, scientists finally found the answer:

Experts have long pondered why flu and other respiratory viruses spread more in winter. No one explanation, such as people staying indoors more, or the destructive effect of the sun’s radiation in summer, has fully explained it. [...]

Influenza viruses coat themselves in fatty material that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures — a finding that could explain why winter is the flu season, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

This butter-like coating melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.

"Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," said Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who led the study.

Link (Photo: tanjila [Flickr]) – via Blue’s News


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7 comments to "Scientists Figured Out Why Winter is Flu Season"

  1. rdubs
    March 3rd, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    FIRST!

  2. Lemons
    March 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    Eeeew. That simile has put me off M+Ms for a while.

  3. Dumby
    March 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    Then please explain then why everyone in Southern Calif has the flue right now...
    Average temp is 60-70 during the day, about 50-55 at night.

  4. Sid Morrison
    March 4th, 2008 at 9:32 am

    Butter like coating? Hmmm. I am now very informed. And disgusted.

  5. Tony LaRocca
    March 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    The truth is, while doctors know many things - and I would always go to a doctor before a holistic healer - there are still many things that they're just grasping straws over. Every ten years or so, they come out with some new contradictory theory about what's good and what's bad, and what causes x y and z.

  6. L
    March 4th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    I'm wondering the same thing as Dumby. Warmer climates shouldn't see any flu at all, if this theory is correct. And the Inuit, with a long winter season, should've been wiped out by the flu ages ago.

    It probably has more to do with the immunity and/or general health levels of certain populations. I'm sure we all know of someone who always gets the flu, as well as someone who never gets it. Scientists should be studying that... not butter-like coatings that may or may not have anything to do with whether a person actually develops the flu once they're exposed to the virus.

  7. Man or Monster
    March 4th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    "Scientists Possibly Believe They May Have Figured Out Why Winter is Flu Season, in Theory"

    --fixed


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