Why flu virus loves the cold

Another reason the wrong kinds of fat are bad for you. They say it's something like butter (But never tell a cow that)

clipped from www.abc.net.au Influenza viruses coat themselves in fatty material that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures, a finding that could explain why winter is the flu season, US researchers report. We might be able to fight the flu virus by designing drugs that weaken its outer fatty coating, according to researchers who say this layer is critical to the way it infects cells This butter-like coating melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells, the team at the National Institutes of Health found. "The protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," says Dr Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who led the study. "It's only in this liquid phase that the virus is capable of entering a cell to infect it." Researchers have long pondered why flu and other respiratory viruses spread more in winter. "The study results open new avenues of research for thwarting winter flu outbreaks," he says.