How the hell does the flu start every year?

[kthx]

So I have been wondering how the hell the flu starts every year because it doesn't make sense. So does it come off the wind, from mosquito's, from water or food? Why are there peak months of flu season, and how he hell does the first person get it? Seriously.. how does the flu virus change every single year, and how does it start every single year, you would think there would be years with no flu viruses or no change to a flu virus or something. It's fucking stupid and it annoys me.

[Adman]

Well, i'm not sure it actually ends. IT makes sense for there to be peak times around winter, because people go otuside less and more people are in enclosed areas with no windows open and stuff like that.

I think that when people get sniffles and stuff and blow their noses and fail to wash their hands, they spread germs that make some people sicker. Not everyone's immue system is great which i guess could alter the flu bug enough to make it spread to people who other flu bugs.

Maybe that makes some sense.

[Blocks]

So does it come off the wind, from mosquito's, from water or food?

Huh? From mosquito's what?

Why are there peak months of flu season, and how he hell does the first person get it?

Same reason bears hibernate in the winter ... seasonal changes cause "behavioral" changes in viruses and hosts. Could be any number of seasonal cues that enable the influenza virus to spread. People are continually getting the flu, the only "first person" is perhaps the first person to become host to a particularly virulent mutation.

Seriously.. how does the flu virus change every single year, and how does it start every single year, you would think there would be years with no flu viruses or no change to a flu virus or something.

Viruses are little bottles of RNA that are much more susceptible to mutations than living organisms with DNA.

It's fucking stupid and it annoys me.

If you trust in the The Holy Binity (The Wiki and The Google) all your questions will be answered.

[Dutch_]

Heard our Euro-flu's start in Asia. We look at the asian flu to prepare our flu-shots for the coming winter.

[kthx]

Yeah but... every virus has to have an origin, so it isn't like the flu virus is just chilling on a toothbrush waiting to activate again during the winter time.

[Fit of Rage]

It doesn't have to be winter for people to get the flu. It's just far more common during those months. People can and do still get the flu in summer months, and it spreads more rapidly as winter approaches. The reasons for this are not totally clear to me at least, but the method by which pathogens spread is well understood (direct and indirect contact, and less commonly, airborne).

I'm no doctor, but I'm sure there's info out there.

[Troll King]

Why are we asking questions that we know T0ne will eventually try to answer with more of his nonsense?

[Zeebu]

flu is a conspiricy by left wing libs and aliens

[paradise!]

pretty sure the flu is just bacteria found everywhere, just during the winter our immune systems are at its lowest, thus the bacteria aren't exactly killed off.

anything that comes in contact with our body has potential to hurt us, but most of the time we can fight it. That's why you can't exactly die from AIDS, aids just rapes your immune system and THEN you die from some bullshit like a cold or the flu.

my $.02

[Zeebu]

pretty sure the flu is just bacteria

stopped reading

[Xog]

To my understanding when someone gets the flu virus our bodies create cells that fight it off. Your body releases the virus in its normal state and its 'mutated' state. When your immune system fights it off, it doesnt always destroy the virus, and when that happens it adapts and changes so that it can't be destroyed the same way the next time it finds a host.

The flu virus, once out of your system (via breathing, spit, mucous, etc) doesnt die away. They arent really 'alive' to begin with. Due to this, the virus can stay anywhere forever until it finds a new host that picks it up in its new mutated, stronger form.

There isn't really a time of year that the flu isn't around. I've had the flu in the Summer before, and in the Winter. The virus itself can be anywhere that isn't harmful to it, for an indefinite amount of time. It's not really an organism, more like a mechanism that replicates itself from other cells in its host(s).

Flu viruses are studied year-round and when a potential problem is identified, vaccines are created that specifically fights off specific types of flu viruses (such as H1N1) because our immune system would not know how, or would have a hard time trying to get rid of it. (I'm sure you know, but a flu vaccine is just a shot with the virus itself but in a weaker state. Your immune system can usually fight these off without any problems, and once it fights off that specific virus in the vaccine, the immune system knows how to fight the real one off)

Outbreaks/'Peak Months' come around when a mutated flu virus is picked up by people with weak immune systems, thus creating many more of the virus (since it reproduces using your cells) and becoming a potential problem to others. Say you have a cold, it's getting pretty chilly outside and your immune system has spent a week or two fighting it off. It's now very weak - and you pick up the flu virus. Bam, you're in trouble. Now you have the Flu, and it's mutating and multiplying inside your body. Then it will pass it on to the next person, so on and so forth.

Picking up the virus itself is incredibly easy. All you have to do is get in range with someone that has it, or if it's on like a keyboard or a seat on the bus, all you have to do is have physical contact with it and it's in your body.

This is why we're always advised to wash our hands and work areas and use antibacterial soap or hand sanatizer much more often during 'Flu Season'. I hope you can now see why the H1N1 virus created such a panic across the globe.

TL;DR: They enter your body and multiply. Based on your immune system they mutate/change so they can't be fought off the same way the next time they reproduce. They don't die off when they're not in your body.

[PaulOakenfold]

You're more likely to get the flu during the winter because people are indoors for a larger portion of the day, not because you go outside and 'catch a cold.'

[Xog]

You're more likely to get the flu during the winter because people are indoors for a larger portion of the day, not because you go outside and 'catch a cold.'

Both cases will get you the Flu. If you catch a cold, your immune system is very weak and can't fight off the Flu virus.

If you're inside and someone has the Flu, you're getting a constant flow of the virus from everyone else around you. It doesn't just "stop" unless the body overcomes the virus and destroys all of them.

I'll give you a scenario.

John just came over a cold and is inside.
Sally hasn't been sick at all recently, and just came inside.
Joe has had the flu for 1 day and is inside. He's never had it before.

Say they all stay indoors over the weekend. Friday evening, Joe uses the computer for about an hour. Sally decides to go on next. Sally picks up the Flu.

John and Joe watch TV. John picks up the Flu.

Saturday - John is showing symptoms of the Flu, but Sally is not.

Sunday - Joe is feeling a bit better. John is getting really sick. Sally is just starting to show symptoms.

On monday they all go to work and/or school. The virus from Joe is pretty much defeated but he's still carrying it. He spreads it to his co-workers.

Sally is getting really sick mid-day through school, she passes it on to her classmates.

John's feeling a bit better but is still carrying the virus and still spreads it to his classmates.

By Thursday they're all better, but a bunch of people now have the virus.

[Kim]

Lol at Paradise's post. Hey Paradise, stick to what you're good at: Telling Ease that he sucks and that Thunder sucks.
Wait you're not very good at that either!

[kthx]

Yes Yes I understand everything that everyone is saying, I know how viruses are transmitted but is the flu virus a virus that actually stays in your body dormant until your body has a lowered immune system from fighting off some other sickness and then attacks? I mean if not the disease has to be transmitted from somewhere, who gets the first flu every year, what did they do to get the flu, what did they eat or touch. Viruses and shit don't just randomly appear out of thin air every year, something or someone has to be the host or else the virus itself couldn't live. It just doesn't make sense to me how a certain virus can just develop, I mean bacteria makes much more sense to me because it can grow on food, I mean things like botulism and the sort actually start from something, but a virus that isn't transmitted by food and doesn't grow on anything specifically as far as I can tell is just something that I don't understand. It isn't something I was taught in school or have ever read about in a book, I was just always "taught" by reading the paper or watching the news that it was flu season and then people would just get the flu. But it has no starting point as far as I know.