How sickness spreads in a household

[Chloefairydust]

So have recently come down with a cold, and it got me thinking. I live with my partner and we are very close, (sharing a bed etc) however he never catches colds from me and I never catch them from him. I’m just sat here now thinking how strange that is. We have been together 5 years and have both been ill a number of times but we never seem to catch it from each other.

So I’m not sure what exactly it is I’m asking here, how does illness spread in your house? Is there certain family members you just never catch sickness from despite being close and sharing germs? Is it impossible or less likely to catch illness from certain people?

If there is anyone here more scientifically minded who actually knows the reason behind this, I would be fascinated to know, why this is?

Different diseases spread in different ways - some are airborne, some from surfaces, some through bodily fluids. The length of time that they remain "alive"/viable and able to infect another person varies from hours to days. They can only infect another person if they get to a suitable entry point, the right type of cell. Some diseases are better at infecting people than others, you might only need to be exposed to one virus to be infected or you might need thousands for one to actually succeed. It's a bit of a lottery whether the virus/bacteria/fungus will successfully make the journey from one person to another. Even if it does, the person may have immunity from previous exposure.

Do you remember the R number? When R is 3, that means the average number of people an infected person infects is 3. Think about how many people you come into contact with every day? Only a tiny percentage of those contacts will become infected.

You get sick more often when you are a child because you have been exposed to less diseases so have less immunity, kids have poorer hygiene that adults, and you get into closer contact (playing/touching) with a wider range of people, share more objects with other kids than adults do (food, toys), and all those factors apply to most of your close contacts (other kids) so they are more likely to have caught something and be infectious in the first place 😂

Your mum will have been exposed to the same diseases that you caught as a child (by you), so if she didn't already have immunity, she will likely have caught them from you. Therefore, if you catch something new now, there's a good chance your mum doesn't have immunity to it either.

The DCs and I often overlap with colds.
DH and I are rarely ill at the same time. We've had Covid 3x between us but haven't shared it at the same time despite taking no measures to distance.
DH isn't ill very often but every few years, something will randomly floor him.
We're not susceptible to stomach bugs. With a 9 & 11 yo, I've only had to deal with stomach chunks about 3 times, and once that was connected with something spread around a hotel buffet.

I usually get everything the kids get but avoid everything DH gets ( unless he got it off the kids, having Covid at the same time was not fun!) I assume it's because the kids do things like sneeze in my face.

Aww no, I know they can’t help it because they are young and don’t know any better, but I really hate when children don’t cover their mouths when they cough/ sneeze. 😣