Can we have the flu and cool off at the same time?

A cold infection and the flu at the same time sounds like a nightmare scenario, but it doesn't happen often after one usually excludes the other, new research has shown, Kosovo Press broadcasts.

Scientists have found that flu infection reduces the possibility of developing an accompanying infection of the cold virus into a patient, according to Live Science.

The flu season is less social with the possibility of a cooling caused by innovation, its main cause,” said chief author of the study, Pablo Murcia from the Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow.

Scientists usually study cold and flu viruses separately, “but in this case, we studied both viruses together, as if it were a kind of ecosystem”, Murcia explained.

“When we understand how viruses work and as a virus infection can benefit another or possibly prevent it, we can also develop better ways to target viruses”, he said.

He and his colleagues analyzed the data collected by more than 36,000 people in Scotland.

The samples were tested for 11 types of respiratory viruses, such as innovation, type A flu viruses, and B, the Sinkytial respiratory virus and adenovicus.

In the tested population, 35 percent of people were positive for at least one virus, and only 8 percent were positive for “co-ordination” of at least two viruses.

“Computer analysis and data shows of fewer cases of renovirus infection, which usually occurs during the winter, at approximately the same time that more cases of seasonal flu were reported”, said research co-author Sema Nickbakhsh, associate research at the Virus Research Centre.

When researchers examined isolated cases of infection among patients, they found that people infected with type A had 70 percent less predisposed to restore the virus than patients infected with other strains.

Scientists do not yet know the exact reason for the cooling effect between flu viruses and innovations, but they assume viruses compete with each other in trying to repeat themselves.

“We believe that, like lions and hyenas fighting for food at Kenya's Masai Mari National Park, respiratory viruses fight for their “burs” in respiratory ways,” explained Dr. Nickbakhsh.

Scientists are conducting additional experiments to determine the interaction between innovations and influential viruses. They hope that if they understand biological mechanisms that support the interaction of viruses, they will develop better ways of controlling their spread.

The results of the study were published in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.