Science Questions

Why didn't I catch the flu?

I’ve been in contact with someone who’s had the flu quite badly but I didn’t catch it. Why would that be? Mark in Bletchley

We put this question to Dr John Wood:

Well, I don’t know the particular circumstances. It’s possible, I hope, that maybe he had a vaccine but maybe not. He could have been exposed to flu in the past which gave him some immunity. Maybe he didn’t know he’d been exposed to flu in the past. It may have been a kind of sub-clinical infection he didn’t notice. I expect he had some kind of immunity.

January 2008