• Question: Is there any connection between being cold and catching a cold?

    Asked by danrumford to Cat, Daz, Holly, Johnson, Pamela on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Dan,

      When I first started out studying to be a microbiologist, it used to make me so angry when people used to say “Don’t go outside like that, you’ll catch a cold”!! And I used to shout back something snotty and rude about what would they know about viruses…..I’m a much nicer person now 😀

      I think you can get a cold at any time…in fact I know this, i’m recovering from one right now (sniffle sniffle) but it is true that there is a connection between cold weather and certain viruses!

      I’ve found a couple of news stories for you to read about viruses and cold weather. Please don’t think of this as me taking the easy way out but I know you’ll learn a lot more from reading them than if I were to write two lines about it!

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7276447.stm

      http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12808-cold-weather-really-does-spread-flu.html

      Hope this helps,

      Cat

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