Flu Virus
The ways in which the flu virus can change over
time
There are a couple of different ways that the flu
virus can change as time passes. The flu virus changes a little bit
at a time constantly so that it can continue to survive. The flu
virus is extremely good at doing what it takes to continue to exist.
The flu virus can evolve like few other things in this world.
One of these two ways in which the flu virus can
change is knows as antigenic drift. This is what happens when the
flu virus changes just a tiny bit time after time, and when this
happens many strains of the flu virus can be created. This is
extremely dangerous in the population of the world because these
strains are often able to do severe damage to the human body because
no one has any immunity to the new flu virus.
Generally when a person gets infected with the flu
virus, any flu virus they will begin to build immunities to the flu
virus and others that are related to it. When new strains of the flu
virus are made by this method they will not be recognized by your
body and this could lead to very serious illness or even death.
This is actually the main reason why we all get
the flu virus so many times. The flu virus is not something that we
get only once and then get over it is something that we get many
times throughout the course of our lives because each flu virus that
we get is a different strain that the body sees as new. That is why
if you are older you need to get a flu virus vaccine each and every
year in order to be protected all of the time.
The other way that a flu virus changes is from
what is called an antigenic shift. This is not a slow change in the
flu virus, it is a shift in the flu virus that is huge and fast. It
is a sudden things rather than a gradual one. This type of shift in
the flu virus also leaves us humans with little or no immunity to
it.
The type A flu virus is subject to either one of
these types of changes while the type B flu virus will only change
by the former antigenic drift method. The flu virus is something we
all have to deal with and that we all should learn more about in
order to start preventing it from spreading more than it already
does.
Recommended Reading:
Common Flu
Symptom
Flu Season
Flu Vaccine
Flu Virus
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