How the Flu Virus Can Change?

The flu is one of the most common diseases encountered across the world. Various vaccines are available which can prevent it, but they are not always effective. This is so because the virus has the ability to change its pattern, which means that our antibodies are not familiar with the virus and hence cannot take action immediately.

One of the ways the virus changes itself is through antigenic drift. This is when the virus continuously keeps making changes to itself. Though they may be small changes, they render the virus strains invisible to our vigilant antibodies. This is why you may be infected by the flu more than once.

The other way a virus changes itself is through antigenic shift. This is a great change that occurs suddenly to Influenza A viruses. The way the mutation takes place is when Influenza A from an aquatic bird and Influenza A from a human contaminate the same healthy cell in an animal like a pig or a chicken, the two different strains mix together to form a completely new strain.

Antigenic shifts can be particularly dangerous with the capability to cause chaos. This is because the virus can jump from one person to another as they have almost no protection against the new strain.