Fighting the flu with the common cold

It's been around since the 1980s and according to the UN new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% in the past eight years; however there are still some 7400 new cases of it every day around the world and the stigma surrounding AIDS remains. This week a report put forward to parliament in the UK stated that one fifth of people with HIV had been harassed because of it, the same amount reported being denied medical treatment.

HIV is the number one cause of death among African American women between the ages of 25 and 34. It is killing them at more than 20 times the rate of white women, but still, many are too scared to speak up about protection.

And while HIV has been around for over two decades, a new pandemic has gripped the lungs and throats of many, the new flu, influenza A. Doctors at the French National Flu lab in Lyon are looking at how the common cold can protect you from the new flu.

"This is a relatively new concept. It's something that had already been outlined, this interference between respiratory viruses. It's the theory that there can only be one at a time. One virus would not necessarily protect the patient but it can keep another virus from taking its place," notes Jean Sebastien Casalegno from the French national flu laboratory.

A fascinating prospect for researchers and it comes as the new flu appears to be mutating. The World Health Organization says that antiviral drugs and vaccines remain effective and that virus mutations are very frequent.  There is no evidence yet that these mutations are increasing the cases of serious infections and according to the WHO, the vaccine and antiviral drugs like Tamiflu remain effective in fighting these new viruses.