Grandma's moistening kettle may have held off flu

Parent Cafe
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<p>By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer</p>

<p>Grandma may have been right about keeping a teakettle warming on the stove in winter to moisten the air. Studies of seasonal influenza have long found indications that flu spreads better in dry air. Now, new research being published Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, indicates that the key is the absolute humidity — which measures the amount of water present in the air, regardless of temperature — not the more commonly reported relative humidity.</p>

<p>Relative humidity varies depending on air temperature; absolute humidity doesn’t.</p>

<p>“The correlations were surprisingly strong. When absolute humidity is low, influenza virus survival is prolonged and transmission rates go up,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an Oregon State University atmospheric scientist who specializes in ties between climate and disease transmission</p>

<p>The finding “is very important for the scientific community and the medical community to know to develop better prediction models of influenza,” Shaman said in a telephone interview. It will offer the chance to better understand and forecast the spread of the disease.</p>

<p>For the public, he added, it offers a “more elegant explanation for why we see these seasonal spikes” in flu. And, he added, it shows that in some cases it may be worthwhile to add humidity to the air. </p>

<p>[Grandma’s</a> moistening kettle may have held off flu - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090209/ap_on_sc/sci_flu_humidity]Grandma’s”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090209/ap_on_sc/sci_flu_humidity)</p>

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<p>I wonder if this means there are fewer cases of the flu in coastal areas, where the humidity is pretty high year round? I also wonder if this is where the idea of keeping a window open while sleeping came from?</p>

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<p>I live on the Jersey Shore and I think the flu rate may be lower here. The humidity is definitely higher and the air is always moving with constant wind. But the other thing that I think keeps the flu rate low is that we have next to no people here during flu season. I tend to avoid people in January when everyone gets back to work after spending the holidays with sick kids and spreads diseases throughout their offices.</p>