Can you have the flu in your rectum?

Answer 1

Well for the sake of giving a good answer to an interesting question: oddly enough, I'd say yes.

Influenza viruses attack our bodies by attaching to the specific cells of our mucous tissue. This type of tissue is in the lining of the respiratory system and also in the lining of the gastrointestinal system. So, it is possible to catch the flu if the virus gets on your mucous tissue regardless of where it is in your body.

So, since the rectum is also lined with this type of tissue, it is possible (although unlikely) for a virus particle to enter into your gastrointestinal system at the top and not attach to the mucous tissue cells until it gets to the bottom and then manages to attach to one before it is excreted. In that sense, you would have flu virus particles attached to the cells of your mucous tissue in your rectum. And that could be considered having flu in your rectum.

Alternately, if you had the virus on your hand (or an object) and if that managed somehow to touch the mucous tissue at your anus, then virus particles could be introduced and attach directly to the mucous tissue of the rectum near the anus, and then you could also have flu in your rectum.

The symptoms would still be of the respiratory flu, not the "stomach flu" (gastroenteritis), however. It is the kind of virus that determines the symptoms, not the location of the introduction of the virus.