When you have a cold, if a sample is taken from your nose – much like a blood sample Covid-19, a large amount of rhinovirus will be found. The characteristic cold virus. There are over a hundred different species.
In contact with cells inside the nose, so-called pits nasal, the virus enters them. Then, our brave cells will work to reproduce it in several thousand copies. They die by releasing these multiple copies which will go and infect other people. Our nose runs profusely, the mucous membranes are congested: this is the common cold.
All this stops after a few days. When our cells have acquired immunity against this virus, whether or not you have taken medications. You see, the common cold is a viral disease, not a cold.
If we catch a cold more during the winter, it is indirectly related to the temperature. First, the sickness is contagious and is transmitted between individuals by air and contact. On a dry surface, the virus can survive for up to seven days. And the more you live indoors, the more this transmission is facilitated.
Indoor heating, the main cause of colds
Paradoxically, it is not outside, in the cold, but inside, in the heat, that we catch a cold.
Second reason, the mucus. In winter, we tend to overheat homes. As a result, the air becomes dry, the mucus evaporates faster and our nasal passages are weakened. The virus can then enter cells more easily.
To avoid catching a cold, no need to over-cover yourself outside. Especially if you live confined with an interior temperature of 25 degrees. We must above all avoid overheating our houses, ventilate frequently. The barrier gestures are the same as for the coronavirus.
Moreover, and it is no coincidence, the network Sentinel which follows the progression in France of the various viruses, indicates that currently the circulation of rhinoviruses is very low. We are not giving up and we are increasing our chances of getting through this new epidemic wave and winter colds.
