Australian scientists have discovered that a person's genetic makeup can influence how they are affected by illness

The researchers from the University of New South Wales have found people with a genetic vulnerability spend twice as long in bed when they become ill and are significantly more likely to have an intense illness during the acute stage of an infection - when fever, aches and pain first strike signalling the start of the body's immune response. According to the researchers people with certain high risk gene combinations are eight times more likely to suffer from a severe and prolonged illness when they have an infection but other people have a gene combination which makes them particularly hardy, with a less severe illness. The research is the first to explore how genetic makeup determines the severity of an illness and could lead to ways in which people who are particularly vulnerable are identified and to the provision of individualised prevention and treatment programmes for common infectious diseases.

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