Asia-Pacific Passes Bird Flu Pandemic Test, Australia Says

The lower lungs have a higher temperature, which is closer to what birds' body temps are. If the virus mutates to be able to live and reproduce in the lower temps of humans' upper airways, then our *ahem* goose is cooked.

You may have hit on something here, with this and a reference to air conditioning.

Is it possible to lower the temperature of the lower respiratory tract by lowering the ambient air temperature?

Granted, it will only slightly depress an individual's core temperature, but if the lower lungs can be cooled by convection to the temperature of the upper respiratory tract, mightn't that make the difference in helping to retard or discourage infection?

There is virtually no AC in the countries where the infectiona have occurred, at least not at the village level.

Just a raging drizzle of a brainstorm...

Follow up on that thought...Here, in North Dakota, when we have a relativley 'warm' winter (little weather in the -20 to -30 degree range) people have colds and other assorted maladies completely out of proportion to what there are in a year when the weather is more extreme (30 or more days of twenty below weather with high temps below zero or in the single digits).

In fact, the 'old' folks around used to say we needed some cold weather "to kill the germs".

The more I think about the temperature relationship in viral infection, the more I believe this creates an environment in the URT which is hostile to infection by virii (which favor the cooler human temperatures there) through the influx of extremely cold air (in such weather a person doing manual labor has to be careful to not frost damage their lungs).

While those virii might take root temporarily in the deeper recesses of the respiratiry system, the normal temperatures there are too high to favor their growth.

Temperature change in the URT from going in and out of heated environments would vary from too cold to significantly warmer. The variation may make it more difficult for the infection to take hold.

BTW, it seems the people who are inside almost all the time are the ones most likely to get sick. (Inside job, remote starter on the car to warm it up before they get in, etc.)

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