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Achoo, and bless you too

Hendry Maphosa would like to know more about sneezing.

Hendry Maphosa would like to know more about sneezing.

A person sneezes when the delicate membranes in the nose are irritated. It is similar to coughing, in that the body tries to blow the offending material away. When a person sneezes, the tongue blocks off the air flow, so instead of the material passing out through their mouth, some of the irritant moves up their throat and into the back of their nose. One sneeze can blast bacteria from your nose and mouth at speeds of about 160kmh in a cloud of water droplets.

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