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Some bacteria strains, including some types that cause tuberculosys, pretend viruses to attack and moch the immune system.  This was revealed by a research of the University of California at Los Angeles, published in Science.

With this technique, bacteria are affected by inadequate immuno response to fight them, and so they can easily penetrate into our cells. The discovery could also explain why viral infections, like the flu, make us more susceptible to subsequent bacterical infection such as pneumonia. 

The study is important for tuberculosys, which kills 1,4 millions of people each year worlwide. The bacteria that pretend viruses stimulate immune system to launch an attack with protein beta-interferon, which is designed to fight viruses. Not only, this protein can arrest the action of another protein, called gamma-interferon, which released as immune response against bacteria, thus ending to help bacteria infection.

And whether a virus were to effectively infect the organism, this is going to trigger the response of beta-interferon, by confusing more the immuno system and opening the door to bacteria. The researchers say this could explain why influence can lead to bacterical pneumonia.