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Infection - The common cold
The term common cold reflects the feeling of chilliness on exposure to cold that is part of the onset of symptoms. The feeling was originally believed to have a cause-and-effect relationship with the disease, but this is now known to be incorrect. More than 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin pointed out that colds are caught from other people, not from exposure to a cold environment. The common cold is an acute, communicable viral disease characterized by nasal stuffiness, sneezing, runny nose, throat irritation, and, sometimes, fever. There are more than 100 agents that cause the illness, including parainfluenza, influenza, and respiratory syncytial viruses, as well as reoviruses. Rhinoviruses, however, are the most frequent cause of the common cold.
The common cold is an illness that occurs seasonally. Young children can contract between three and eight colds a year, usually coming into contact with the infectious agents in day-care centres or preschools. All available evidence indicates that cold weather, chilled wet feet, and drafts do not cause or increase the susceptibility of people to colds. The usual duration of the illness is about five to seven days, but lingering cough and postnasal discharge may persist for two weeks or more.
Diagnosis of a cold is usually made by medical history alone, although it is possible to take a culture for viruses. There is no effective antiviral agent available for the common cold. Therapy consists of treating the symptoms—relieving aches, fever, and nasal obstruction. One of the greatest medical controversies in the 1970s concerned the efficacy of vitamin C in the prevention or treatment of the common cold. In two carefully controlled studies, administration of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) failed to prevent or decrease the symptoms of the common cold.
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