“No, you don’t catch colds with air conditioning. It’s a side effect of using it; you catch a cold because you’re in contact with the virus”sums up Dr Pierre-Marie Tardieux, head of the Emergency Department of the Nice University Hospital.
The doctor details: “When you go from hot to cold, the body uses a lot of energy to adapt to these sudden changes in temperature – hence the advice to limit the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. outside at 5 or even 7°C maximum. This will weaken the immune system so if you come across a virus, you will be more likely to be infected. As with Covid, contamination occurs in confined spaces, by droplets of saliva, hands…”
Only a feeling of sinusitis
How come some people have runny noses? “It’s often not a cold. This phenomenon is linked to the fact that air conditioning dries the air and therefore the respiratory mucosa. The body will then produce water which gives the impression of having the nose flowing. This can go as far as a feeling of sinusitis”adds the emergency physician.
What to do then? “Already, it is useless to go directly to the emergency room with only this type of symptom: you must first contact your general practitioner, consult in a practice with extended hours or even by teleconsultation. If this is not possible, before going move to the hospital, it is necessary to call 15 who will direct”advises Dr. Pierre-Marie Tardieux.
Clean the device
It is possible to avoid these inconveniences by acting upstream. In addition to adjusting the temperature (not too cold therefore), “you have to maintain your air conditioning every year and clean the filter very regularly during the summer because viruses and bacteria can lodge there. In the same vein, you have to dry the device well because the presence of water stagnant water promotes the development of bacteria, knowing that legionellosis is one of them, even if cases related to the use of air conditioning remain uncommon”warns the head of the pole.