Yahoo! Life: Why Does the Flu Make Some People Sick but Not Others?
Yahoo! Life recently interviewed infectious disease specialist Jonathan Grein, MD, director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai, about why some people seem to be more susceptible to the flu than other people.
Grein told Yahoo! Life the short answer is that doctors aren’t sure.
“This is a great question that applies to any infectious disease beyond influenza,” he said. “The longer answer is there are many complex factors that go into how the immune system responds to an infection.”
Those factors can include being immuno-compromised because of a preexisting health condition, as well as age, lifestyle and genetics.
Grein also said it is possible to have the flu without symptoms.
“It is generally accepted that about 20% to 30% of people will be asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms …,” Grein told Yahoo! Life. “We know that people infected with influenza tend to begin excreting the virus from the respiratory tract one to two days before their symptoms begin. So … asymptomatic people are probably infectious. But it’s not well defined exactly how infectious they are.”
Grein said the best way to protect against serious illness is to get a flu shot every year.
“The argument of, ‘Well, I never get sick from the flu, so I don’t need the vaccine,’ sounds a bit like someone saying, ‘I’ve never been in a car accident so why should I wear a seat belt?’ he told Yahoo! Life. “Flu vaccines are one [of] the most widely studied and safest vaccines we have and are the best tool to protect us from the most severe complications of the virus.”
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