Cold Infections May Be Less Frequent in People with the Flu (VIDEO)
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People were less likely to catch either influenza or a common cold-causing rhinovirus if they were already infected with the other virus, a new study by scientists from the Medical Research Council-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research has found. Understanding how these distinct viruses inhibit each other could help public health planning to improve forecasting models that predict respiratory disease outbreaks and strategies for controlling disease spread, say the scientists. Samples from 44,230 cases of acute respiratory illness, in 36,157 patients, were tested for 11 types of respiratory viruses over nine years in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Using this data, the researchers found that 35% tested positive for a virus and, of those, 8% were co-infected with more than one type of virus. The most striking interaction they found was between influenza A viruses and rhinoviruses, a type of virus that can cause the common cold. Computer modelling of the data found that the inhibitory interactions between influenza and rhinoviruses appeared to occur within individual people as well as at a population level. Dr Sema Nickbakhsh, from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow, who was first author on the paper, said: "One really striking pattern in our data is the decline in cases of the respiratory virus rhinovirus, which is typically a mild common cold causing virus, occurring during winter, around the time that flu activity increases. In the same way as lions and spotted hyenas compete for food resources in the Masai Mara, we believe respiratory viruses may be competing for resources in the respiratory tract." Dr Pablo Murcia, from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow, who led the research, said: "Traditionally people have studied viruses in isolation - you study only flu or rhinovirus - but we've shown here that we need to also be studying these viruses together like it's an ecosystem. If we understand how viruses interact and how certain viral infections may favour or inhibit each other, then maybe we can develop better ways to target viruses."
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University of Glasgow
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