Nature takes a second look at the best kind of respiratory infections – the bacteria that fight off the flu:
A research team led by Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, found that mice treated with neomycin antibiotics were more susceptible than control mice to influenza viruses. It turned out that neomycin-sensitive bacteria naturally present in the mice’s bodies provided a trigger that led to the production of T cells and antibodies that could fight an influenza infection in the lungs.
Yet another reason not to take that antibiotic when you’ve got a cold.