Older people may have higher immunity to avian influenza viruses

If the H5N1 avian influenza virus causes a pandemic, older people may have better immunity than younger people because they have been exposed to closely related viruses in the past.

In previous H5N1-infected populations, older people were less likely to catch the virus than younger people, leading scientists to hypothesize that the former group may have greater immunity to the virus than younger people. erected. This may be due to older adults being exposed to influenza strains closely related to H5N1, called H1N1 and H2N2.