Flu is spread by breath not sneezing, says study

THE deadly flu virus can be spread simply by breathing, scientists say.

It had been thought the illness was spread by watery droplets from coughs and sneezes.

Now experts have found the virus can be passed on by breath alone – and warn it is not enough to wash hands and work surfaces or avoid someone spluttering in the office.

The only way to avoid it is to get a flu jab, avoid public places and to send home those showing symptoms.

Professor Dr Donald Milton, at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in the US, said: “People with flu generate infectious aerosols – tiny droplets that stay suspended in the air for a long time – even when they are not coughing, and especially during the first days of illness.”

The study, which analysed the breath of 142 students with flu, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It comes as GPs in the UK reported a 153 per cent rise in cases, or 31,300 patients, since the start of the year, with 120 deaths this winter. Cases have accelerated more than two-and-a-half times in two weeks with 8.3 million suffering. Worst-hit regions include Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich, Nottingham, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Portsmouth, York and Canterbury. The crisis is putting huge pressure on the NHS, facing its worst winter on record.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “General practice continues to face huge winter pressures with a significant increase in patients presenting with influenza, and high numbers of patients continuing to present with other common winter illnesses.

“The best prevention for flu...is for people, particularly those in at-risk groups, including those with longterm conditions and pregnant women, is to get a flu jab.”

The most virulent strain is influenza B which includes H3N2, or Aussie flu – thought to have killed Bethany Walker, 18, of Applecross in the Scottish Highlands, this month.