Why are people with influenza infections susceptible to bacterial pneumonia?
Antigenic shifts within the respiratory tissue converts the influenza virus into pneumococcal
bacteria.
The H1N1 bacteria cause flulike symptoms in the upper respiratory tract, but pneumonia in the
lower respiratory tract.
The viral attack on nerve cells, which almost never divide, prevents a person from breathing
deeply or coughing, which allows bacteria to reside in the lower respiratory tract.
After the virus destroys the protective layer of cells lining the lungs and upper respiratory tract,
bacteria and other pathogens have unimpeded entry into the lungs.
