The mystery continues to hover over the base camp of the Blues, in Qatar.
Three players (Kingsley Coman, Ibrahima Konaté and Raphaël Varane), victims of various symptoms, did not participate in collective training on Friday.
Two others (Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano) did not play the semi-final on Wednesday.
The staff now speaks of a viral syndrome but without giving more information on the disorders felt or on their true origin, fueling various hypotheses including the craziest (an infection with MERS-CoV, whose lethality rate is approximately 30 %).
Asked Wednesday evening at a press conference, the coach of the France team, Didier Deschamps, replied that “the temperatures have rather dropped, there is air conditioning on full, there are feverish states”.
Thus, the air conditioning which works at full in the hotels and in the stadiums in Qatar could have made some Blues unwell.
Brazilian players have also implicated her after suffering from coughs and sore throats.
But what is it really?
“Air conditioning does not create viruses!
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Doctors and scientists respond that a cold or a flu syndrome "necessarily implies an infection, therefore most often a virus (sometimes a bacterium, for example legionella)", as indicated on Twitter by medical biologist Claude- Alexander Gustav.
Clearly, it is not the cold air sent by an air conditioner in itself that makes you so sick.
“Air conditioning does not create viruses!
“Summarizes the virologist Vincent Maréchal, joined by Le Parisien.
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However, this is not without risk, for several reasons.
First of all, the cold (natural or generated by a device) could facilitate infections, according to a study published on December 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
When the temperature is lower, the body produces fewer extracellular vesicles (EVs) whose role is to prevent the pathogen from reaching the mucous membrane, by "blocking" it.
"A certain number of viruses, including rhinoviruses, are better able to take refuge in a mucous membrane at a lower temperature", decrypts Vincent Maréchal, adding that living in large numbers in the same place can also promote the transmission of pathogens.
Irritations that “often resolve after a few hours”
Air conditioning can also contribute in itself to the spread of viruses or bacteria if it is not well maintained or of poor quality.
"Proper maintenance of these systems, including changing filters regularly, is essential to prevent the circulation of unhealthy air," said Dr. Wassim Labaki, professor of internal medicine and pulmonologist at Michigan Medicine, in 2019 to the Huffington Post.
Finally, by cooling the air and drying it out, air conditioning can cause irritation in the eyes or nose, as well as the urge to sneeze.
The person has symptoms potentially similar to those of a mild cold, without having been infected with a virus or bacteria.
“The air conditioning changes the temperature of the air and its level of humidity, but these irritations often resolve themselves after a few hours.
To the point that people have to isolate themselves and can no longer get up, that seems excessive to me, ”concludes Vincent Maréchal.