• Question: Why and how do we get the flu and fever

    Asked by widow to Chris, Hayley, Jimi on 17 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      flu is cause by a virus, influenza, which get into you lung cells and makes more of itself using the machinery in the cell (that’s what viruses do)

      fever is caused by the hypothalamus – a part of the brain, kind of a thermostat – in response to infection… it may be that the fever helps fight the infection… or maybe the virus is causing the fever to help itself?

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Flu is a virus. The little virus enters into your lungs and makes a mess. What a virus does is make more and more of the virus. We can catch the flu by being near people with the flu and inhaling little droplets where they have sneezed or touched you! Eww!

      A fever can come with the flu or a virus. This is because a bit of your brain which is to do with controlling temperature gets affected. Instead of being able to make you cool and keep your temperature of your body still, it will get higher and higher. Sometimes the fever is used to get rid of the virus itself.

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