What Causes the Flu Season?
Virus
Different types and subtypes of flu viruses circulate in the population. They are highly contagious; the virus causes the body to produce symptoms which ensure the spread of the contagion.
Viruses enter the respiratory tract of a human by the person touching their eyes, nose or mouth after contact with an infected surface, exposure to a sneeze, infected fluids or droplets that are inhaled or transferred or through direct contact with an infected person. The virus invades the cells of the body, hijacking them and converting them to miniature factories to produce copies of the virus.
Antigenic Shift
Antigenic shift occurs when a flu virus exchanges genes with another flu virus within a host's cell. The newly combined virus is sometimes able to spread more readily between species. The term also applies when a virus jumps directly to a new intermediate host or from animals to humans.
Antigenic Drift
Antigenic drift occurs when mutations occur in the flu virus as it replicates, causing it to no longer be recognized by antibodies that fight it. Because virus genes are made of RNA, they more readily experience mutation (than DNA based genes).
Vitamin D
Low levels of Vitamin D have been connected to increases in lower respiratory infection. Lack of Vitamin D is believed to render people more susceptible to the virus because our immunity is lowered or our necessary gene regulation cannot be accomplished or a combination of the two effects.
Cold Temperatures
Flu viruses have a shell that hardens in the cold, protecting them until the warmth of the body releases them. In warmer climates and temperatures, the virus may lose this shell before finding its way into a human respiratory tract.
Dry Air
Low humidity in our environment has been shown to make conditions ripe for the spread of flu virus. This is driven both by cold air and by indoor heating during colder months and the effect on our mucous membranes.
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