Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 15/11/2011 16:24:30

Title: Why can some people carry the 'flu without getting symtpoms?
Post by: thedoc on 15/11/2011 16:24:30

When my wife gets a bad cold or flu I don't get it but I pass it on to my workmates. Why?
Asked by John, Peterborough


                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered. (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/show/2011.11.13/)

 

Title: Why can some people carry the 'flu without getting symtpoms?
Post by: thedoc on 15/11/2011 16:24:30

We answered this question on the show...



John -  Yeah, that's an interesting one.  So probably about a third of people who get infected with flu don't display any obvious symptoms.  They may display something very mild that they might not even notice it themselves.  And they have the potential at least to spread the infection although to be honest, we really don't know whether they genuinely do or not and I’d love John in Peterborough to log on to the flu survey and tell us more about his illness and the spread because he just seems like a fascinating person.