New Delhi, 27 February (IANS). Earlier H1N1 flu infections can increase the body’s immunity and reduce the severity of H5N1 bird flu. This has been revealed in a study.
The study has been published in the magazine ‘Emerging Infections Disease’ and may explain why people were not seriously ill in most cases of H5N1 infections in the US.
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Amori researched to find out how the virus spreads among humans.
He studied on the ferret and found that the immunity already existing affects the severity of infection. The ferrets that already had immunity against the H1N1 flu survived the H5N1 infection, while who did not have this immunity, they became more seriously ill and many died.
“Every flu epidemic spreads under the influence of already existing immunity,” said Valerie Le SEZ, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. He also told that even though the immunity system of human body is complicated, we can get a lot of information from this study.
The effect of the flu infection of the phere is similar to humans- they have fever, sneeze and the nose flows.
The study also found that the ferrets that had previously had the H1N1 flu, survived the H5N1 infection. However, their lungs were damaged, but their symptoms remained mild, fever decreased and their weight did not reduce. Conversely, which had no immunity earlier, they saw symptoms of high fever, overweight fall and widespread spread of virus in the body.
The immunity from the earlier infection helped the navals to eliminate the virus quickly and limited the infection to the windpipe only. Whereas the virus spread to the heart, liver and spleen in those who had no pre -immunity in the body.
This study suggests that it is necessary to keep in mind the pre -existing immunity while assessing the danger of the epidemic.
-IANS
AS/