8 Curious Facts About Daily Diseases
Surprise yourself with some curiosities about the most common diseases that you had not read before!
The human body and mind still keep countless secrets that science has not been able to uncover. However, over the years, researchers have been able to uncover several curious facts about everyday illnesses.
In our space, we want to share with you some of these curiosities. We are sure that more than one will leave you open-mouthed! You are ready? Let’s go there!
Curiosities about daily illnesses
1. When you are 75 years old you will have suffered at least 150 colds
Different studies have concluded that each of us usually suffers from two to five colds a year. If we take into account the current life expectancy in Spain (83 years), each of us will have suffered at least 166 colds in his life.
2. The cold virus is not just one!
Of course not, there are more than 200 viruses that can cause the normal cold. For this reason, the human body never develops resistance to this disease. Among the most common viruses that cause colds are rhinoviruses and coronaviruses.
3. Children can get up to 12 colds in a year!
Parents can attest that this is so. How many times does a child have a cold, are fine for two days and come home from school with snot hanging again?
4. Curiosities about daily illnesses: A quarter of people with colds do not experience symptoms
We all know the symptoms of colds, after all, it is one of the most common daily illnesses. However, not all of us knew that some people can be infected with one of the cold viruses and have no cough, sneeze, or runny nose.
5. A sneeze can reach 60 km per hour!
The reality is that measuring the speed of sneezes should not be easy, but this is what specialists calculate. 60 km / h is the speed at which a greyhound runs! In some cases, it is believed that a sneeze can even exceed this speed and the droplets of saliva released can fall five meters away!
6. Viruses of everyday illnesses can survive on various surfaces.
By sneezing, we spread the virus around us and it can stay active on different surfaces. For example, the flu virus survives up to 24 hours and the cold virus survives up to seven days! Do you understand now why it is so important to cover your mouth with your elbow when you sneeze? Thus, you avoid infecting others.
7. The flu is continually evolving
The flu is one of the daily illnesses that we suffer most times throughout our lives. Surely you know that there are three kinds of I nfluenza : A (is the most virulent and affects human and birds), B (is the most common and affects only humans) and C (less common, affecting human beings and animals).
However, each year new strains appear each type of I nfluenza . For this reason, vaccines cannot always protect us and we end up getting sick.
8. In the last century, several influenza epidemics have been known
Today, the flu is a daily illness to which we do not usually pay much attention. However, as we have already seen, it is extremely contagious through saliva and can also cause complications such as pneumonia.
- The Spanish flu lasted from 1918 to 1919 and affected 40% of the world’s population. In fact, approximately 50 million people around the world were killed. A curiosity? Despite its name, it did not originate in Spain but in the United States.
- The Asian flu originated in China in 1957 due to the mutation of the virus in wild ducks in combination with a human strain.
- The Hong Kong flu left an estimated one million dead. Thanks to technological advances, it was possible to develop a vaccine that prevented further human losses.
- The swine flu of 1976 caused more than 12,000 victims and generated panic among the population, since the virus was similar to that of the great epidemic of 1918.
- The bird flu had its first outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997. The virus was identified as H5N1 and after being controlled, reappeared in 2003 in Asia and Europe.
As you can see, although we know how to act in the face of daily diseases, there is a lot of data that is foreign to us. We hope we have surprised you with some of these curiosities. Until next time!
