People don’t have to cough or sneeze to give you the flu, study finds

It’s been a rough flu season.

At least 20 children in the United States have died from the respiratory illness so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while hospitalization rates are high.

And the flu, which poses the most threat to the very young and very old, has killed the types of people who aren’t considered as susceptible to the virus. A 21-year-old aspiring personal trainer from Ohio and marathon-running 40-year-old mother of three from California are among those who died after catching the flu during this year’s harsh season.

In short, it’s been among the worst flu seasons in recent memory — and we might be in the middle of its peak, according to an explainer from Vox.

So it’s no surprise that most people are probably looking right now for any way to avoid catching the virus, which comes with side effects like chills, fever, body aches, coughing and a sore throat.

But avoiding the flu might be more challenging than you think. According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it’s not just enough to avoid sick friends who are coughing or sneezing.

Instead, researchers from universities including the San Jose State and UC Berkeley found that the nasty illness can be spread just through someone’s breathing.

The study was conducted at the University of Maryland, College Park, from December 2012 to the following March. Throughout that period, researchers found the flu virus in 142 people — and 30-minute samples were taken as they exhaled, coughed and sneezed for each of the first three days of their symptoms.

Samples were also taken with a swab from the upper part of the throat behind the nose.

Researchers found that some people emitted enough of the infectious flu virus through their breath to get those around them sick. But coughing and sneezing are still believed to spread the illness more easily than breathing, the study suggests.

“We found that flu cases contaminated the air around them with infectious virus just by breathing, without coughing or sneezing," lead researcher Dr. Donald K. Milton, from the University of Maryland, told the Huffington Post. “People with flu generate infectious aerosols even when they are not coughing, and especially during the first days of illness.

“So when someone is coming down with influenza, they should go home and not remain in the workplace and infect others.”

The study’s findings could prompt health officials to consider new ways to combat the spread of the flu, Dr. Ronn Berrol of the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland told NBC.

"People are starting to go back to different thinking now about: Are things transmitted more significantly in the airways than we appreciated previously?" he said.

But remember: it’s not too late to get your flu shot, which can limit the length and severity of the illness even if you catch it.

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 1:18 PM with the headline "People don’t have to cough or sneeze to give you the flu, study finds."