Hold back that sneeze... you might be a flu super-spreader
WE ALL try to avoid catching flu germs from people as they cough and sneeze at home or work.
But dodging the bugs might be impossible if you come into contact with ‘super-spreaders’ – a new group identified by scientists.
Researchers have discovered that some people are biologically predisposed to be highly infectious when they catch a cold or flu virus.
The scientists say different people ‘shed’ different amounts of virus and they hope their findings could be used to prioritise super-spreaders for flu vaccine – so limiting the spread of the bug and potentially saving thousands of lives.
UK infectious disease consultant Dr Chris Chiu came to his conclusions after infecting 10 volunteers with swine flu in a laboratory test. Each received five million virus particles, before being monitored over 10 days. Some volunteers developed very little flu virus in their nose but others became flu factories. The more virus a person has in the nostrils, the more infectious they are likely to be.
Dr Chiu said a test for ‘particular patterns of genes associated with infectiousness’ was a possibility.
Such a test could be used to prioritise the super-spreaders for vaccination – so slowing spread of an outbreak and reducing the number of infections. Dr Chiu said: ‘If the test indicated that person was going to get more serious disease and shed a lot of virus, then you might want to bring them into hospital in an isolation room, so they don’t infect other people, and start anti-viral treatment more quickly.’