Does the influenza virus just float everywhere? Can you catch a cold by let’s say walking in the woods, slightly underdressed and not making contact with any sick person?
In: Biology
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Viruses can often survive for a while on surfaces, like the packaging of groceries, doorknobs, faucets of hand washes etc.
Vsires alot from different viruses how long and what conditions they can survive in.
Take rhinovirus for instance, a common cause of the common cold. It can survive and stay infections for about 24 hours on surfaces.
This is unlikely, most airborne “cold/flu” type viruses die out in a couple hours or days at the most.
However a shared apartment building for example could have ventilation systems that are connected, or a shared entrance that somebody else walked through earlier. This means diseases could be transmitted between people without them being in the same place at the same time.
The idea that you could “catch a cold” by exposure to cold temperatures is not really accurate. This myth comes from the (true) observation that illness tends to spread more in the winter. Excessive cold can weaken your immune system but the actual exposure to disease happens near other people, usually indoors. The air conditions and increased time spent indoors is the primary reason illnesses increase in winter, while “catching a cold” from cold temperatures is at best a small factor and at worst, completely incorrect.
Because “Colds” are not real — this is actually a catch-all term for any illness that shares the set of symptoms you think of as a cold. For example, you may have a sinus infection (which looks like a cold) caused by a random allergen or even fungus (that you inhaled during your walk in the woods) getting stuck in your sinus cavity. A sinus infection can also have other causes that are more closely related to your interactions with other people, including bacterial/viral.
Do you remember during the pandemic all the hand washing and sanitizing of surfaces?
You can get sick from touching things that a sick or infected person was touching beforehand. Their germs get transferred to you and then you touch your mouth, nose or eyes.
Cold temperatures can trigger your immune system making you believe that you’re sick when you might not be. It explains why we often get a runny nose when we’re walking in cold weather for example. When you’re in a warm place again, these symptoms usually subside.
If you’re complexity isolated with no outside contact of any kind – you won’t get a virus.
However – don’t forget fomites. These are surfaces/objects that may come into contact with you that have deposited pathogens on them. Simply getting a food order or a package delivered – although unlikely – is enough to transmit something.
Some pathogens can live outside the body for weeks (Norwalk virus anyone?) but most live for less than one hour, especially when exposed to UV light.
So unless you’re *completely* isolated, there’s always some minor vector. That’s why hand washing is so important.
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