«Protect your child's nose»
Mr Tabori, the cold season has begun. Is it really bad if my child walks to school with wet hair in the morning?
This is less about the hair and more about the head. It forms an area that radiates a relatively large amount of heat, and this area is larger in relation to the body in children than in adults. Heat is therefore generally lost through the head. Now you also have the weather, it's windy and cold. So much heat can be lost that hypothermia occurs. The result is reduced blood circulation, which in turn means that the body's own defences do not function as well as they could.
And what about wet ears?
They make it easy for the pathogens to play their cold game with us. That's why it's an absolutely sensible requirement: either my hair and ears are dry or I at least wear a hat. Incidentally, I'm generally in favour of hats in cooler temperatures, even with dry hair: They protect our heads and ears from the wind and us from getting cold.
What about wet socks?
Something like that. Again, it's about the cold, not the wetness. The feet have a relatively large surface area with the toes, so a lot of our body heat is lost. And then the same principle applies: a freezing body is simply less able to ward off germs. Feet are important for body temperature, so they don't even have to be wet. Everyone knows this in winter: If your feet are cold, it's hard to keep the rest of your body warm. As the saying goes: «Someone's feet are getting cold.»
What helps?
A warm footbath is always a good idea, otherwise make sure you wear slippers and warm socks and good waterproof shoes, boots or boots.
My child has a cold, nothing dramatic, but his nose is really running. Can I send him to school?
The idea behind this question is: Is my child fit to go to school? If they feel fit enough and don't have a fever, then of course they can. But there's another side to the coin, and that's where the infection prevention counsellor in me comes through: If you send a child who clearly has a recognisable cold - i.e. a snotty nose - to school, you are doing to the other parents exactly what you don't want to do to yourself.
We touch our nose up to 400 times a day. This is how germs get to where they can cause damage.
I would like to appeal to parents to take responsibility: During the spread phase, which usually lasts two or three days, children are very contagious. They don't even have to sneeze on someone. All it takes is for a healthy child to touch something that a sick child has previously touched and then briefly rub their eyes or nose. So my advice is to leave the child at home during the acute phase, everyone is grateful and we have fewer infections overall.
Doctors are calling for people to be vaccinated against the flu - what can I do myself to avoid the germs that make me ill?
They don't have to escape the germs at all. The important thing is that they don't get to where they can cause damage. This is mainly your nose. Regular hand washing is therefore a very clever and extremely effective measure.
What exactly does regularly mean? So and so many times a day?
No, not according to a specific cycle, but according to the situation: after the toilet, before eating, after coughing or sneezing - although you shouldn't do the latter in your hand anyway, but in the crook of your arm. It is also advisable to wash your hands after blowing your nose, as well as when you come home or to the office, before you eat something or when you scratch your nose. According to a study, we do this up to 400 times a day. There is nothing fundamentally unhygienic or indecent about this. But it does show the important role our hands play when we catch a cold.
Which germs are responsible for the cold?
These are mostly rhinoviruses, of which there are more than 100 variants alone. However, there are also corona and adenoviruses as well as respiratory syncytial viruses, or RS viruses for short. The pathogens want to reach their target cells in the nose and respiratory tract. We pick them up at the tram stop or on the handrail of the escalator - someone who has a cold or has been in contact with a sick person before us unloads their cargo here. We pick up the pathogens with our hands and then rub our eyes, touch our faces or scratch our noses. Perfect! Because that's exactly where the germs want to go, our finger is the red carpet into the nose, so to speak.
So I'd better not touch anything outside.
That would be completely exaggerated and unrealistic. You can basically touch anything. However, it is important that you regularly set the germ situation on your hands to zero. In other words: wash your hands.
And what is the best way to do that?
Always with soap. In an English study, intestinal germs, so-called faecal germs, were found in 44 per cent of samples when hands were unwashed after using the toilet; after washing hands with water alone, faecal germs were still found in 23 per cent of samples, after washing hands with soap and water in only 8 per cent.
Of course, it is better to wash your hands with water than not at all. But if you want to eliminate germs effectively, you should use soap. It takes about 30 seconds to wash your hands properly. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends humming «Happy Birthday» twice, which takes about half a minute. Very important: don't forget the spaces between your fingers and especially your thumb. The thumb is the counterpart for all gripping actions and is therefore used the most of all fingers.
Does it have to be warm water?
It doesn't matter whether it's warm or cold - whichever you prefer. What matters is the soap. Put simply, it changes the surface of the skin and water so that as many germs as possible are rinsed off. If you dry your hands properly afterwards, you will also get rid of a few germs.
The decisive factor is not what we touch, but how we behave afterwards.
In addition to cold viruses, diarrhoea pathogens such as noroviruses are also removed when we wash our hands. So it's not what we touch - whether it's change, a door latch or toilet seats - but how we behave afterwards, i.e. whether we wash off the germs we've picked up. Incidentally, there are fewer germs on our money than we generally think.
How do I teach children to wash their hands so meticulously?
By showing and explaining it to them, step by step. Children are often even more reliable than adults. And if they forget, that's okay too - after all, they are children in the learning phase. The main thing is that they learn that washing their hands is important and get used to practising it as a matter of course.
But even if I wash my hands regularly, that doesn't protect me from germs in the air.
This is another fear that nobody needs to have. Airborne transmission is completely overestimated. According to the WHO, over 80 per cent of all infectious diseases are transmitted via the hands. Hand washing alone can reduce the risk of respiratory diseases by up to 45 per cent.
A germ alone does not make us ill.
Only a few pathogens are transmitted from one person to another via droplet infection. Droplets with a size of more than five micrometres sink quickly and are only dispersed up to a maximum distance of one and a half metres. Consequently, the best way to avoid infection is to keep your distance from people who are ill. Only very few pathogens are transmitted via the air itself, for example the pathogens that cause pulmonary tuberculosis or chickenpox or measles pneumonia. However, the latter are both such serious illnesses that no-one travels on trams with them. The risk of catching a disease through the air on public transport is therefore very low.
What else can I do to keep my immune system as strong as possible against germs during the winter months?
Take care of your mucous membranes, as they are an important bastion in the body that germs have to get past first. This includes, for example, airing your home regularly and ensuring a comfortable level of humidity. When cold, dry air enters the home, it becomes warm. Warm air wants to absorb moisture and therefore removes it from its surroundings - including your mucous membranes. Ventilation also reduces the dust particles in the air. Drinking enough fluids and spending time outdoors as well as exercise also support the defences of our mucous membranes. The better moisturised and supplied with blood they are, the better they can do their job.
Can the mucous membranes cope with all the germs?
The viruses that cause the common cold certainly do. The decisive factor here is not just what kind of pathogen it is, but how many are attacking us. We doctors speak of the infectious dose. One germ alone does not make us ill. A certain amount of one type is needed for this. Only when this is reached does the balance of power change in their favour and we get the typical cold symptoms. Furthermore, the symptoms are not primarily caused by the pathogens, but are an expression of the immune system 's defences being active. The symptoms of all these viruses are therefore very similar and we cannot identify the type of virus on the basis of the symptoms.
What do you think of the idea of keeping your home as germ-free as possible? There are antibacterial cleaners, disinfectants, sanitisers for laundry and antibacterial bin liners ...
That's all humbug. You don't need any of it in your household. The industry profits from people's fear of germs. This completely overlooks how much we need germs. Humans have lived in peaceful symbiosis with the vast majority of them for millions of years. Eliminating all germs does us more harm than good.
We need most of the germs in and on us, and by the way, there are more of them than we have our own body cells. There are only a few bacteria that are pathogenic for humans, i.e. that can make us ill. Fighting all germs now would be like deciding to eradicate all animals. Yes, there are poisonous snakes and lions, but that doesn't mean we have to kill hamsters.
Children contract colds and coughs about twice as often as adults.
So rather no disinfectant?
That's right. This is a blanket exterminating agent, it destroys all germs in an untargeted manner - it certainly won't make us any healthier. On the contrary: they are also poisons. We are just bigger than the bacteria, so the agents don't kill us. Nevertheless, we breathe them in when we clean, they harm us and the environment. Irrespective of this, there is nothing to be said against cleaning your home or kitchen and bathroom. In particular, careful handling of food is more than advisable. But disinfectants and antibacterial cleaners are definitely overkill
and the wrong way.
How many colds per year are normal?
Adults get two to five colds a year, although most people consider five to be a lot. Children fall ill with colds and coughs about twice as often, i.e. around eight to ten times a year. However, there is no need to worry if your child falls ill for the eleventh time. The decisive factor is rather how long the recovery phase lasts in each case. And: A day on which the child sneezes several times does not necessarily have to be classed as a cold.
