Regular flu may delay spreading of swine flu

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Regular flu may have delayed the spreading of swine flu, suggests a recent Swedish study.
      According to the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI), rhinoviruses - the most common causative agents of the common cold in humans - have in the early autumn curbed the spreading of the H1N1 virus, which in turn causes the swine flu.
      About a month ago the number of swine flu cases in Sweden started increasingly rapidly and the disease was feared to turn into an epidemic. Suddenly, however, the spreading of the illness came to a juddering halt.
      In SMI’s view, the phenomenon can perhaps be explained with the flu wave brought on by rhinoviruses that coincided with the start of the school year.
      Whilst the two epidemics happened simultaneously, the rhinovirus, which normally flourishes in the autumn months, outspread the H1N1.
     
According to infectious diseases clinician Dr Jukka Lumio from the Tampere University Hospital, viral infections increase people’s resistance against similar types of pathogens, but this effect only lasts for a few weeks.
      “Even though there are in excess of 200 viruses around that cause influenza, only in the rarest of cases would anyone ever contract two infections in a space of a month.”
      Lumio is of the opinion that this phenomenon does not have a significant effect on when the swine flu epidemic starts in Finland.
      In Lumio’s view it is pointless to think that if several rhinoviruses entered Finland, then the swine flu epidemic could be avoided.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vantaa young people to get swine flu shots in school gyms (9.10.2009)
  Swine flu vaccination programme to keep local authorities busy in coming months (21.9.2009)
  Swine flu vaccinations to start in late October (18.9.2009)

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