Being cold will not make you get the 'flu

KNOWLEDGE SNIPPETS

This post was inspired by a conversation on Twitter a few days back. On the center of this conversation was Dr Sindi van Zijl, who was educating people on what causes flu. So it turns out many people are under the impression that getting cold will make you catch a cold or get influenza (flu). It is winter here in South Africa, and in Cape Town, that means rainy cold days. The drought stricken Cape Town has been getting rain after a few years of dry spells. Before the rains, people had been  dreading the arrival of "Day Zero", which is the day when all the taps in the city would have be to be switched off by the municipality, and water rationed and distributed from collection points at specific areas.  Whilst we are not really out of the woods yet, the rain has brought great relief so far. Anyway where was I....yes getting cold and catching the flu. 


The winter season comes with a surge in the number of people getting flu and colds. Does this mean then that the cold is what makes us sick? Flu is caused by viruses which are highly contagious and can be spread through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs, or when you touch surfaces which have these viruses like door handles, elevator buttons, phones......anything that can be shared, including a kiss.

So then, why do more people get the flu or cold in winter? Well that is because these viruses tend to live longer indoors during winter because of humidity. People also spend more time indoors snuggled up to each other and this results in them infecting each other. Finally, poor hygiene practices during winter also make the transmission of the virus easier. People tend to not want to wash their hands during winter, resulting in them getting infected.


  

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing hands regularly, getting your flu vaccine , covering up coughs and sneezes and staying away from infected people.

For further clarification, I have added this link which shows a Youtube Video explaining in simple terms why the cold does not make you get the flu.