In days gone by

[muddlethru]

I can always remember people saying that "What we need is a good cold winter to kill off bugs and infections " Well we have a good cold one now so will it kill off the Swine flu and others I ask myself. Ah, they sayings of yesteryear.

 

[Northerner]

Perhaps Copepod could shed some light on this - she knows a lot about the Antarctic, and it gets pretty cold there!😱🙂

 

[Copepod]

cols in Antarctica

This page answers some queries about health in Antarctica, aimed at primary school children:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/teacher_resources/information/primary/pschoolsq_hs.php

Actually, bases are generally uninfected through the winter - until the first visitors of the summer arrive by ship or plane, and as no-one has any immunitiy to the latest viruses, virtually all over-winterers go down with the lurgy - and catch anything when they return to Falklands, UK, South America etc.

In the UK, these days, central heating means that few buildings get really cold, so the impact of a cold winter on virus levels is less significant. In older days, people would keep warm by keeping closer eg all round one fire, all in one bed, so opportunities for passing on infections were increased....

 

[Caroline Wilson]

Working in London and using public transport, which is overcrowded, I'm surprised we don't go down with more infections, bugs, viruses or the lurgy. On wet days, especially in winter more people than normal seem to use the tube.

I think the cold probably kills off many parasites found in the crops, and many insects and things that birds normally feed on.

 

[muddlethru]

Thanks for replies.
Copepod interesting life in the Antartic. One tends to forget just how much work goes on down there. I guess the answer to the question is that you can still catch colds etc even in the frozen wastes.

I'm sitting here with a lovely streaming cold which my husband so generously shared with me. Bless him.