Obesity can be caught as easily as a common cold from other people's coughs, sneezes and dirty hands, scientists said Monday.

The virus, known as AD-36, infects the lungs then whisks around the body, forcing fat cells to replicate and leading to weight gain, causing sore throats, coughs, diarrhea and conjunctivitis Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La. Said.

People could be fat for reasons other than viral infections, so it's pointless for fat people to try to avoid infection, and humans have a natural body weight and they always suffer hunger pangs said Dhurandhar.

Medicine