You bet they could. If you've got a lot of drainage and crap in your lungs, the wetter they are, the more fertile the ground is for infection to set in. If you're not running some fever, though, or coughing up stuff that has a yellowisn-green tint, you may simply have allergies and asthma, which also go together. I'm coughing and wheezing and sniffling and dripping like crazy but don't yet have any indications of an infection, such as fever. I'm trying to keep things dried up with antihistamines and decongestants so I don't pick up a bug.