When someone has a cold, the nasal secretions are teeming with cold viruses. Coughing, drooling, and talking are all unlikely ways to pass a cold. But sneezing, nose-blowing, and nose-wiping are the means by which the virus spreads. You can catch a cold by inhaling the virus if you are sitting close to a sneeze, or by touching your nose, eyes, or mouth after you have touched something contaminated by infected nasal secretions.
Once you have "caught" a cold, the symptoms begin in 1 to 5 days. Usually irritation in the nose or a scratchy feeling in the throat is the first sign, followed within hours by sneezing and a watery nasal discharge.
Inhaling droplets from coughs or sneezes is the most common way to catch the flu. Symptoms appear 1 to 7 days later (usually 2-3 days). The flu is airborne and quite contagious, and with its short incubation period it often slams into a community all at once, creating a noticeable cluster of school and work absences. The flu usually arrives in the winter months. Within 2 or 3 weeks of its arrival, most of the classroom has had it.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
How We Actually Catch Cold and Flu Viruses
Saturday, September 22, 2007
ACHOOOOO - The Contagious Cold
Sooner or later everybody catches a cold. Colds are caused by more than 200 different viruses. These viruses are spread by person-to-person contact through contaminated secretions on the fingers and hands, and through particles in the air from sneezing and coughing.
As long as the virus is present in nasal discharges, the cold is contagious. Scientists believe that there is more live virus present in nasal secretions between the second and fourth days of infection, so you could say that a person is more contagious during this time period. Symptoms usually begin around the second day, but this can vary. Some people never have symptoms, even though an infection is present. Some people do not develop symptoms until the fifth day after infection. No one can explain this variation and it is one of the things that make it difficult to find what to take to stop a common cold. Some people have symptoms for only a couple of days; others for a couple of weeks. Experts advise that if symptoms are present for longer than two weeks, there may be another cause, such as allergy or a bacterial infection.
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Holidays Are Coming and So Are Colds
Contagious Christmas cheer
Are your co-workers out with colds this holiday week?
Are family members sniffling and sneezing after visits from relatives?
The best thing you can do is be happy, wash your hands and, well, avoid people.
"There are plenty of germs out there that people can get as they circulate," said Dave Zazac, a spokesman with the Allegheny County Health Department. "In the general course of holiday greeting and meeting, people are going to get sick."
More than 200 viruses that can give you a cold are out in force during winter. All the holiday bussing and hugging are reasons that Americans suffer 1 billion colds annually.
Mr. Zazac said there was no cold epidemic sweeping the county, although the first flu case of the season -- Type A influenza -- was reported last week.
But it doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine desks, tabletops, utensils or furniture on which peop
le have sneezed or coughed. Those viruses can travel 3 feet, Mr. Zazac said, and some can live on surfaces for hours.
"That's where proper hand washing, personal hygiene, and environmental cleaning and disinfection can come into play to break the chain of transmission from germs to people," he said.
Ample supplies of flu vaccines are still available at the county's Health Department Clinic to help protect against the three strains of influenza virus expected to circulate this winter. The shots are a covered benefit for some Medicare recipients.
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, adults average two to four colds a year; school-age children can have as many as 12 annually. Women, particularly those between the ages of 20 and 30, have more colds than men, possibly from their closer contact with children. People older than 60 usually average less than one cold per year.
The institute reports that colds in the U.S. are more common in fall and winter because of the opening of schools and the fact that during inclement weather people stay indoors, increasing the chances that germs will be exchanged along with holiday gifts.
Plus, the most common cold-causing viruses survive best in low humidity, which is during the colder months.
While there's general agreement that personal hygiene -- hand washing, the avoidance of touching your nose, eyes and mouth, and covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing -- can go a long way toward preventing colds, help can come from elsewhere.
According to Ayurvedic medicine, there are immunity-boosting foods that can bolster cold-season health. These include fresh, organic and easily digestible foods such as organic milk and yogurt, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and ghee, or clarified butter.
Ayurvedically speaking, sweet, sour and salty tastes are better for the body's winter balance than astringent, bitter and pungent flavors, although all six should be included in diets.
If diet and personal hygiene are too much bother, staying in a good mood could be the final bulwark against a cold.
A study by Carnegie Mellon University health psychologist Sheldon Cohen in the November/December issue of "Psychosomatic Medicine" replicated his 2003 research that found people who displayed generally positive outlooks had a greater resistance to developing colds that those who were rarely upbeat.
His research showed enhanced regulation of interleukin-6, an infection-fighting substance, by people with positive emotional styles. Those styles were identified by Dr. Cohen as traits of high self-esteem, extroversion, optimism and a feeling of mastery over one's life.
Left unsaid in the study was how insufferable those people can be around others who have colds.
