Varmint, yes there was a specific diagnosis. I won't bore you with the details, but if you are interested, google cross-reaction/ immunology. There are some really nasty bugs around., coming into the country by workers entering illegally who thus duck health-control.
And these air-conditioning systems are perfect for evenly spreading anything.
You are right though that other places might not be any better, as I stated in my first post.
In this case, however, it definitely was Dubai. The Gulf is unique in that you need air-cond for at least one third, if not three quarters of the year - in your house, your car, your favourite shopping mall. Other funny places on earth just have the good old ceiling-fans which I would defintely prefer.
If you google the scientific names of mould which I mentioned earlier in this thread you will find symptoms which are in line with what people are complaining about all the time, starting with cronic fatigue. Maybe the management-guys and their fatigue-computer-models are right: it's not the tough rosters but the exposure to toxins which deprieve you of all the energy you had back home.
What makes me really sick, tough, is the fact, that I hear more and more about colleagues who have serious health problems in their families - from mould growing in their sinuses to intestine-cancer.
Again: could happen anywhere.