Do colds that your children pass in a mild way 'knock you down'? We explain why

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"The cold that my daughter suffered a few days ago, without pain or glory, seems to have multiplied by four when it reached me."

Still with the voice taken, José María sympathizes with a phenomenon that, he assures, has lived several times.

"Why do colds or gastroenteritis usually cause

in me than in my children?"

"Is there a scientific explanation?"

We consulted with several experts in infectious diseases who first point out that this perception that parents with young children, such as José María, can often have,

.

"This is not always the case. In fact, there are infections, such as

, in which many times it is the adult who carries the pathogen in the throat without anything happening to him, without causing meningitis. And he is the one who carries it. the germ to the family environment, where children are susceptible ", explains Julián Olalla, member of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC).

Whether a virus causes disease with greater or lesser intensity

, continues Olalla, who clarifies that there are different reasons that could explain why sometimes the arrival of an infection in a home implies a more intense and prolonged illness in adults than in kids.

For example, there are viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 that, in general, cause mild illness in children and, on the other hand, are more dangerous in adults. "The coronavirus enters cells through the famous

, which binds to a specific receptor, called ACE2," explains Olalla. Children have few receptors of this type in their cells, continues the specialist. Instead, "as we get older, adults have more receptors, which increases the penetration of the virus," he explains.

The phenomenon is not exclusive to SARS-CoV-2, clarifies Patricia Muñoz, head of the Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases service at the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid. "

, such as

, one of the most important causes of nosocomial diarrhea [of hospital infection]." Children are practically not susceptible because they do not have the necessary receptors. The infection, however, can be very serious in adults, especially in elderly patients, among other risk profiles.

The severity of an infection, Muñoz adds,

, how their immune system is working or the underlying diseases that person has. It is not the same to face a healthy infection than to do it with previous problems, such as obesity, hypertension, kidney damage or heart failure.

On the other hand, it must be taken into account that "the immune system also ages, as do the bones or the cornea," says Olalla. "Especially when reaching the third age a phenomenon called

occurs

. And this means that, on the one hand, we are not able to respond to a pathogen as we responded before; and, on the other, that sometimes that response is aberrant, with an inflammatory cascade that is often excessive. As we age, the possibility that this inflammatory cascade malfunctions or does not stop when it should are greater, "says Olalla, who clarifies that it is especially at extreme ages of life. when the manifestations of an infection are more likely to be more severe.

Massive exposure to a virus or bacteria is also a prognostic factor, adds Olalla, although "the real issue is

: what inflammatory mechanisms are activated and how effective are they That's the key, "he says.

To avoid contagion, the best advice is

when a person in our environment suffers from an active infectious episode, both specialists agree in pointing out. "One thing that I hope we have learned with the coronavirus is not to cough on our hands. Because by doing so we contribute to the spread of microorganisms," says Muñoz. Especially in the case of gastroenteritis, in addition to hand hygiene, it is also essential to keep the surfaces with which we have been in contact clean, to avoid the fecal-oral transmission of pathogens.

Right now, in addition to SARS-CoV-2, whose cumulative incidence over 14 days exceeded 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants last Thursday for the first time in two months (104,29), rhinoviruses are also fundamentally circulating, responsible for a large part of common colds; and bocavirus (HBoV), also causing respiratory infections. According to Muñoz, the influenza virus is also beginning to circulate, whose period of greatest activity is usually between the months of December and January. Specialists also closely follow the evolution of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the main 'culprit' of bronchiolitis in babies, and which can also be serious in elderly patients. Last year there was hardly any circulation of both viruses and it is expected that this season its normal incidence will return.

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