Flu Starts at the Roof of Your Mouth, New Study

The roof of your mouth is the point of origin for influenza development, according to a new study published in Nature on Wednesday. From that point it spreads through coughs and sneezes.

The area that it develops was said to be the soft palate separating the back of the mouth with the nasal cavity. When it gets infected and inflamed it leads to "coughing and sneezing".

Scientists undertook the study on ferrets whose mouth structures are like those of humans. They took advantage of a flu strain mutation that led to the 2009 influenza pandemic, according to Metro.

"Historically, the soft palate has not been examined in animal models of influenza," said Kanta Subbarao of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The study is novel, and could lead to further evidence of what leads to the illness and what viruses need to be fought.

"It really provides us with a handle to very systematically look at any evolving pandemic viruses from the point of view of their ability to gain airborne transmissibility through binding to these 2-6 glycan receptors," said Ram Sasisekharan, one of the study's authors.