The risk of developing pneumonia is 100 times higher in people who were infected with influenza

The link between influenza and pneumococcal pneumonia is clearly shown in our study. In short, our analysis revealed a transient but significant - about 100 times - increase the risk of pneumococcal pneumonia following influenza infection, "- said the study's lead author Pezhman Rohani of the University of Michigan.
Previously, the relationship between influenza and pneumonia could be established only in animals. Rohani and his colleagues created a computer model of the spread of bacterial pneumonia in humans and tested various hypotheses that describe the role of influenza in the process. The scientists assessed the compliance of each hypothesis, epidemiological reports for 20 years, from 1989 to 2009, in which the weekly recorded cases of hospitalization for influenza and pneumonia in Illinois.
These observations confirm the hypothesis that the increased susceptibility of patients with influenza to the agents of pneumonia lasts for 5-7 days after infection. The scientists also found that at the peak of the epidemic season flu was the cause of 40% of the cases of pneumonia, but the average for the year, this value does not exceed 10%. Perhaps that is why earlier researchers failed to show the relationship between the two diseases.