The Flu; Viruses in our System by: Jenell Louissaint
Our body’s main function is to keep us alive and healthy. It maintains a stable internal environment and allows us to react quickly to life threatening situations. Our body also helps us keep out and fight diseases. But what happens when a virus like influenza gets in and how does the body fight it?
Flu season ranges from October to May, and millions of Americans become infected by it within this time period. The flu is a shortened name for influenza which is a virus that affects the respiratory system. The pathogens, which are disease-causing agents, must make it through your body’s non-specific defense,which include the skin, sweat, tears, mucus and the inflammatory response. To get the flu virus you have to come in physical contact with it by someone or something that already has it. The flu virus is most commonly transferred through the air. The flu virus could be coughed onto your hand and then you rub your eyes, nose or mouth and allow the flu virus an easy way inside your body. It could also enter through breaks on your skin such as cuts.
Once inside your body the flu virus could give you the early symptoms of a sore throat, fever, and coughing. Your body’s first response to the flu is triggered by the antigens or the surface proteins of the flu virus. The immune system recognizes that the antigens are foreign and creates antibodies that bind to the virus. These antibodies will either inactivate the flu pathogens or tell immune cells that pathogens are present.
Once inside your body the flu virus will begin to make copies of itself. Because the flu is in the class of viruses that have RNA or it is a lysogenic infection, it will inject and copy its genetic information into the host cell. The virus takes over the cell and gets it to do all the dirty working, by making more viruses. This allows the virus to spread throughout your body as it reproduces.
You can have the flu for one to two weeks and the symptoms generally remain the same throughout the infection: sore throat, fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, soreness, congestion, and a cough. These different symptoms however all mean that there is a battle raging inside your body, for example the sore throat you are feeling is just the effect of having your body fight the flu virus in your throat.