Rules of conduct during a cold

06 March 2017, 16:25

Pho­to: Pam­la J. Eisen­berg

We are all taught from ear­ly child­hood to prop­er­ly han­dle a hand­ker­chief. How­ev­er, recent sci­en­tif­ic research may make some adjust­ments to our behav­ior dur­ing a cold.

Amer­i­can sci­en­tists have found that the dura­tion of a cold depends on the num­ber of blow­ing noses. At the same time, if a cold per­son sim­ply blots or wipes his nose, the dis­ease will not last for a long time.

Charles Djer­ba, a micro­bi­ol­o­gist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ari­zona, is a rec­og­nized expert on the spread of microbes. A respect­ed sci­en­tist believes that a hand­ker­chief is the per­fect germ car­ri­er.

“Dur­ing wash­ing, microor­gan­isms are trans­ferred from one gar­ment to anoth­er. There­fore, if you wash hand­ker­chiefs along with oth­er clothes, you can con­sid­er that you are blow­ing your nose not only on hand­ker­chiefs, but on every­thing else, ”says the micro­bi­ol­o­gist.

The sci­en­tist advis­es dur­ing a run­ny nose to sim­ply wipe your nose, and not blow your nose, oth­er­wise the mucus with microbes enters the addi­tion­al sinus­es and caus­es inflam­ma­tion. In addi­tion, by sim­ply wip­ing your nose, you will spread far few­er germs not only to your­self but also to those around you.

Dr. Djer­ba com­pares our nose dur­ing a run­ny nose to a gun loaded with germs. “Why do you keep fir­ing it?” the micro­bi­ol­o­gist asks rhetor­i­cal­ly.

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The opin­ion of the edi­tors may not coin­cide with the opin­ion of the author of the arti­cle.

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