Commonground
Senior Moderator
Published 27 Nov 2025
Bird flu viruses are a particular threat to humans because they can replicate at temperatures higher than a typical fever, one of the body’s ways of stopping viruses in their tracks, according to new research led by the universities of Cambridge and Glasgow.
In a study published today in Science, the team identified a gene that plays an important role in setting the temperature sensitivity of a virus. In the deadly pandemics of 1957 and 1968, this gene transferred into human flu viruses, and the resulting virus thrived.
Human flu viruses cause millions of infections every year. The most common types of these viruses, which cause seasonal flu, are known as influenza A viruses. They tend to thrive in the upper respiratory tract, where the temperature is around 33C, rather than deep in the lungs in the lower respiratory tract, where the temperature is around 37C.
Unchecked, a virus will replicate and spread throughout the body, where it can cause illness, occasionally severe. One of the body’s self-defence mechanisms is fever, which can cause our body temperature to reach as high as 41C, though until now it has not been clear how fever stops viruses – and why some viruses can survive.
Continued: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news...to-fever-making-them-a-major-threat-to-humans
Bird flu viruses are a particular threat to humans because they can replicate at temperatures higher than a typical fever, one of the body’s ways of stopping viruses in their tracks, according to new research led by the universities of Cambridge and Glasgow.
In a study published today in Science, the team identified a gene that plays an important role in setting the temperature sensitivity of a virus. In the deadly pandemics of 1957 and 1968, this gene transferred into human flu viruses, and the resulting virus thrived.
Human flu viruses cause millions of infections every year. The most common types of these viruses, which cause seasonal flu, are known as influenza A viruses. They tend to thrive in the upper respiratory tract, where the temperature is around 33C, rather than deep in the lungs in the lower respiratory tract, where the temperature is around 37C.
Unchecked, a virus will replicate and spread throughout the body, where it can cause illness, occasionally severe. One of the body’s self-defence mechanisms is fever, which can cause our body temperature to reach as high as 41C, though until now it has not been clear how fever stops viruses – and why some viruses can survive.
Continued: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news...to-fever-making-them-a-major-threat-to-humans
