FRIDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Older people's immune
systems are still strong enough to fight off viruses, according
to a new study. Researchers found that specialized immune cells
called T cells can respond to virus infections in older people
with the same strength as T cells from younger people. "For a
long time, it was thought the elderly were at a higher risk of
infections because they lacked these immune cells, but that
simply isn't the case," study principal investigator Jonathan
Bramson said in a news release from McMaster University, in
Hamilton, Ontario. "The elderly are certainly capable of
developing immunity to viruses," he added. Bramson and his
colleagues looked at how the immune systems of people in three
different age groups (younger than 40, 41 to 59, and older than
60) responded to infections with three different viruses,
including West Nile virus. In all three groups, both the number
and functioning of the T cells were the same, according to the
study, which was published Dec. 13 in th