Longer stays indoors, overheating of the room and poor ventilation favor the spread of the virus in the winter months. This is especially true for children in schools and kindergartens.
Your nose is blocked, or maybe it is leaking uncontrollably? Does your throat hurt, it burns, is it dry? Are you raining, coughing? Feeling faint, have no appetite, maybe have a fever?
You are just one of those who have an acute upper respiratory tract infection this winter, more precisely a common cold!
Did you know that you can get the common cold up to 4 times a year, without worrying? And children up to 10 times or more if they go to a nursery or kindergarten?
And so from year to year! If we make an extrapolation to a lifetime it means the following: during life we have about 200 colds, which makes 3 to 5 years of our life! Amazing, isn't it?
Over 200 different strains of the virus
The common cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract caused by over 200 different strains of the virus. They spread very quickly, because they are transmitted by droplets (speech, sneezing, coughing, laughing…) By sneezing, for example, 100,000 viruses are dispersed into the air within a radius of 3.5 meters. Each of these droplets can survive in the environment, for example on an office desk, school desk, mobile phone, cutlery, chair back or armrests in a tram or bus for about 48 hours. That is why we are often not even aware that we have been infected when and by whom.
Therefore, longer stays indoors, overheating of the space and poor ventilation favor the spread of the virus in the winter months. This is especially true for children in schools and kindergartens, because gathering more people in one place, living and working in groups contributes to the spread of these diseases.
The entrance doors to cold viruses are the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract (nose, nasal throat and pharynx). At the site of entry, colonization occurs first, then infection, and finally the body's immune response to the presence of a virus with consequent inflammation.
Thus, not only viruses are responsible for the symptoms of the common cold, but also the defense mechanisms of our body that create certain molecules and compounds that indirectly worsen the symptoms of the disease. All this is the expected interaction and fight of micro and macroorganisms in order to localize the infection and preserve their own integrity and health.
Therefore, the fight against acute viral infections of the upper respiratory tract must be comprehensive. Because they are essentially self-limiting diseases for which there is no specific causal antiviral treatment. Our body only has to do most of the work, and the many measures and medications we take only reduce the symptoms of the disease, shorten its duration and improve the quality of life!
Young children are especially susceptible to complications
Unlike the common cold, the flu is a very serious illness that, untreated in itself, can be fatal or can cause serious complications. Young children, the chronically ill and the elderly are particularly susceptible to complications. The routes of spread are the same as in the common cold so the same precautions and prevention apply.
Influenza occurs epidemically and is caused by only two viruses: influenza virus A and B, which are unfortunately susceptible to numerous mutations and therefore the occurrence of an epidemic is always difficult to predict as well as the determination of an adequate vaccine.
That is why you can get the flu more than once in your life and therefore you need regular vaccinations every year.
Here are some tips for treating colds and flu:
1. Take action on all symptoms: stuffy nose, runny nose, sore throat, sneezing, cough, fever to return to daily commitments as soon as possible. You can do this by using, for example, tablets that are combined preparations of analgesics, antipyretics and decongestants or various topical preparations (decongestants, sprays, propolis…)
2. Don’t be afraid of vasoconstrictor nose drops! Applied according to the instructions (3 times a day for up to 7 days) can not damage the nasal mucosa, and will help you a lot while you have a cold to breathe easier, to be able to sleep, to be able to eat with the present sense of smell and taste. Be careful with the use of drops in very young children (up to 2 years of age) due to possible cardiac side effects!
3. Rest as much as possible to create the preconditions for your own body for the best and strongest immune response!
4. Drink larger amounts of fluid to dilute the secretions from the upper respiratory tract and cough or blow through your nose as easily as possible!
5. Rinse your nose and sinuses regularly again for the purpose of diluting and eliminating secretions from the sinuses or middle ear, because stagnant secretions are the basis for the growth and development of bacteria and thus the development of cold complications (bacterial inflammation of the middle ear and sinuses).
6. Use topical preparations of hypertonic nasal solutions that act as natural decongestants ("disinfectants") on the principle of osmosis without vasoconstriction! This is especially useful for children!
7. For sore throats, use lozenges or sprays with a local anesthetic and / or antiseptic.
Tips for preventing colds and flu:
1. general social measures:
1. adequate pedagogical standards in kindergartens and schools that ensure an adequate number of students or children per square meter of space, provided ventilation, humidification, hygiene of beds, toys and cutlery
1. a varied diet rich in vitamins, trace elements, micronutrients that are crucial in the immune response as a whole
2. adequate housing conditions (heating, cooling, thermal insulation of the room, room humidity)
regular exercise
1. modern medical care and availability of doctors and / or pharmacists
2. education of the population - public health sector
2. personal measures:
1. Take care of the health of the nasal mucosa throughout the year. Maintain regular hygiene and toilet using moisturizing and rinsing sprays, as only moist mucosa of preserved integrity can successfully resist the numerous viruses lurking in the winter months. In summer, all these functions are performed by the sea!
2. Avoid sudden changes in temperature and humidity, as this severely damages the mucous membranes of the nose and throat. Therefore, when you leave your warm homes on a cold winter morning, put some kind of scarf in front of your nose and mouth and breathe slowly so protected until you enter the car or some other enclosed space!
3. Stay outdoors as much as possible (play in the park, walk by the sea…) In addition to being less likely to transmit the virus, exposure to UV rays stimulates the production of vitamin D in our body which is an important immunoregulator! Catch literally every ray of sunshine during the winter!
4. Do not take sick children to kindergarten or school, because many more children will get sick because of them.
5. Wash your hands regularly, as viruses stay on them for up to 48 hours! Do not exchange mobile phones or cutlery!
6. In the prevention and treatment of colds can be used and the so-called. natural remedies such as Echinacea preparations that have both antiviral and anti-inflammatory effect!
7. DO NOT take antibiotics to treat a cold. A popular proverb says: "If you treat a cold, it lasts 7 days, and if you do not treat it, it lasts 7 days".
In case of flu, complete rest is required with the above medications. In the case of a more severe clinical picture, taking antiviral drugs is prescribed exclusively by an infectologist. Sometimes hos
The importance of adequate use of antimicrobial drugs is not only reflected in the individual approach to the patient but has a wider social significance.
They often have side effects (rashes, nausea, diarrhea…)
They also act on the so-called good bacteria that are normally found in our body (skin, intestines te) and disrupt the harmony of the interdependence of micro and macroorganisms.
They have an effect not only on the individual but also on the whole community, because resistant bacteria spread easily and cause severe and life-threatening clinical pictures.
Keep this in mind before opening a home pharmacy with antibiotics!