Viral Infections: The Common Cold

The common cold is practically a universal nuisance; it contributes heavily to the amount of time lost from school and work each year. One theory suggests that healthy people carry cold viruses in their noses and throats all the time, but they exhibit cold symptoms only when something the fatigue or lowered resistance produces favorable circumstances for the viruses to proliferate. Be this as it may, colds are “catching.” Cold viruses seem to survive in the air, beginning their journey to another person either in the spray of droplets from a sneeze or in the air exhaled when a cold victim talks or breathes. They are also transmitted by skin contact, as when an infected person shakes another person’s hand. The period of time between first exposure to the virus and the appearance of symptoms, the incubation period, is short, usually eighteen to forty eight hours.

Scientists know frustratingly little about cold viruses. They do know that a large number for different viruses can cause colds, and more may still be discovered. Also, cold viruses seem to differ from other viruses in that they do not cause the body to produce interferon on any other substance that could give long lasting immunity. It may be that cold viruses mutate (change their genetic information) rapidly. If so, each successive cold could be caused by a different virus, resulting in an endless series of apparently similar diseases.

What you can do to help prevent colds?
There is little you can do beyond avoiding people with “new colds” (cold are most communicable during the first twenty four hours) or staying away from others when you yourself have a new cold. It is probably useful to keep your resistance up through adequate nutrition, rest, control of stress, and exercise.