A doctor has identified those most at risk of becoming sick from a rhinovirus, which usually develops in people as a common cold.
Dr Joe Kidney, a leading respiratory physician at the Belfast Trust, said those with untreated asthma, COPD or an impaired immunity are most at risk of becoming unwell. Dr Kidney said most people who contract a rhinovirus only experience the symptoms of a cold, however there are certain groups who are more at risk of developing a more serious infection.
Around 12% of the population, he said, has the virus in their nose at any one time and it is most likely to replicate in colder temperatures. Due to their changing nature it can be difficult to build a full immunity to them and it is possible to be infected by a rhinovirus within weeks of recovering from one, Belfast Live reports.
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Dr Kidney said: "I think we all get about six colds a year under normal circumstances and our bodies might have forgotten that during the lockdown. The majority of those are rhinovirus and there are around 12% of us that have a rhinovirus in our nose at any one time and they like to replicate in colder temperatures such as 32 degrees rather than 37, which is our body temperature. So when it gets cold outside it replicates in our nose which is why we call them colds.
"Most of the symptoms are of a cold, cough, runny nose, sinusitis and they can make you feel just rotten but often not very very ill, where flu is much more likely to give you temperatures. Although you can still get aches and pains with rhinovirus as well.
"The issue is now we are looking at people with runny noses and we want to know if they have coronavirus and the answer is they might do, but with a runny nose that can actually be a rhinovirus as well." Dr Kidney said that while the majority of people only experience cold like symptoms from a rhinovirus, there are groups who are particularly at risk, with the virus being the cause of around 80% of asthma exacerbations.
He added: "Poorly controlled asthmatics are a real risk group and these are people who should be taking preventative treatments,[such as] a brown or red inhaler. They feel well between the episodes so they feel an the urgency to take medication because they are getting by with their relievers or blue inhalers, and then they can get very sick with a rhinovirus infection."
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