Influenza

[AOTANI, Masayasu]

When Flu Season Hits: Everything You Need to Know About Influenza
We explain about the influenza virus, tell how and why it spreads, and report about ways to prevent flu infections. Transcript of radio broadcast:
07 January 2008

 

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.  I'm Bob Doughty.

 

And I'm Faith Lapidus.  This week, our subject is influenza, commonly called the flu.  Winter officially arrived in northern areas of the world last month.  Medical experts have another name for the start of winter -- the flu season. 

 

Influenza is a common infection of the nose and throat, and sometimes the lungs.  The cause is a virus that passes from one person to another.  The virus spreads through the air when an infected person expels air suddenly. 

 

Influenza develops after the virus enters a person's nose or mouth.  The flu causes muscle pain, sudden high body temperature, breathing problems and weakness.  Generally, most people feel better after a week or two.  But the flu can kill.  It is especially dangerous to the very young, the very old and those with weakened defenses against disease.

 

The World Health Organization says the influenza virus infects up to five million people around the world each year.  Between two hundred fifty thousand and five hundred thousand people die every year from influenza.

 

Medical experts have recognized for some time that people become infected with influenza during the winter months.  But they did not really know why until recently.

 

American researchers say they now know why the influenza virus spreads in the winter and not in the summer.  They say it is because the virus remains in the air longer when the air is cold and dry.

 

Researchers in New York carried out twenty experiments with guinea pigs to investigate how the virus spreads.  First, they confirmed that the guinea pigs could develop the flu and pass it on to others.  The researchers then placed the animals in areas where the virus was present in the air.  Then they changed the temperature and humidity levels of their environments.  Humidity is the amount of wetness in the air. 

 

The researchers found the virus spread the most when the temperature was about five degrees Celsius and the humidity was twenty percent.  Few of the guinea pigs developed influenza as the temperature increased.  The virus stopped spreading completely at thirty degrees Celsius and eighty percent humidity.  The researchers also found that the animals spread the virus among themselves nearly two days longer when the temperature was low. 

 

Results of the study were reported in PLoS Pathogens, a publication of the Public Library of Science. 

 

One of the researchers said the study shows that influenza virus is more likely to infect people during an outdoor walk on a cold day than in a warm room.  He said cold air helps the virus survive in the air and low humidity helps it stay there longer.  That is because particles of the virus ride on the extremely small drops of water floating in the air.  When the air is very humid, water droplets fall to the ground more quickly.

 

The researchers say, however, that people should not stay in warm places all the time in cold weather to avoid the flu.  They say the best way to prevent the sickness is to get yearly injections of a vaccine that prevents influenza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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