The Flu: What you thought you knew you don't
I love when this happens. Why do we get the flu in the winter? Well because we're all indoors and the kids are in school and it's cold out so your immune is depressed....
WRONG!
Study Shows Why the Flu Likes Winter
Turns out the flu likes 41F and low humidity to transmit from one person to another.
Original Paper.
Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature
WRONG!
Study Shows Why the Flu Likes Winter
Turns out the flu likes 41F and low humidity to transmit from one person to another.
Original Paper.
Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature
Comments
I love when this happens. Why do we get the flu in the winter? Well because we're all indoors and the kids are in school and it's cold out so your immune is depressed....
WRONG![/URL]
The paper says nothing of the sort. The results of the paper are that transmission of flu in guinea pigs correlated with lower temperatures and lower humidity. This seems reasonable. Flu is a crowd disease, and as such is transmissible at higher rates in the winter when the population densities are higher. A side-effect of this may have been that the flu also evolved to take advantage of common weather conditions to aide its transmission.
I also don't understand why you would say that you "love when this happens." What exactly do you love? When (it seems that) science overturns conventional wisdom?
Turns out the flu likes 41F and low humidity to transmit from one person to another.
I disagree.
Florida has the most influenza activity in the nation.
http://www.weather.com/activities/he.../national.html
If the virus is more stable when the air is cold and dry, why does Florida have the most activity?
I disagree.
Florida has the most influenza activity in the nation.
http://www.weather.com/activities/he.../national.html
If the virus is more stable when the air is cold and dry, why does Florida have the most activity?
Your question is rhetorical, I assume. It _is_ interesting that the paper claimed that the infection rates in the guinea pigs fell to zero at 80% humidity. On average, how humid is Florida, I wonder?
But to explain the Florida numbers, you have to realise that all of those infections are Canadian geriatrics fleeing winter. They were probably all infected at 5C and low humidity.
But to explain the Florida numbers, you have to realise that all of those infections are Canadian geriatrics fleeing winter. They were probably all infected at 5C and low humidity.
I lived on the Florida coast for three years. During the morning commute there was a 5 minute program on the local news radio called "Canada Calling." It was amusing to listen to (not in an insulting way, just amusing). I forget the name of the broadcaster, but I remember that it was stereotypically Canadian.
I didn't get a single flu during those three years. In fact, I think I only had one cold.
We found that low relative humidities of 20%?35% were most favorable, while transmission was completely blocked at a high relative humidity of 80%. Furthermore, when guinea pigs were kept at 5 °C, transmission occurred with greater frequency than at 20 °C, while at 30 °C, no transmission was detected. Our data implicate low relative humidities produced by indoor heating and cold temperatures as features of winter that favor influenza virus spread.