Common Cold
Uploaded by mr krabs on Oct 05, 2002
The common cold has been around since the Greeks where physician Hipprocrates suggested that the stuffed up feeling was the result of too much waste matter in the brain. When you received a runny nose, it was the waste overflowing. After the Renaissance, doctors began to study the human body and eventually discovered bacteria. After viruses were uncovered in 1898, German scientist Walter von Kruse suggested viruses were the cause of colds. His findings weren’t confirmed until 1938. In 1955, Sir Christopher Andrewes identified a virus that caused colds; he made a vaccine against it only to find out there were over 200 viruses that caused colds
People can catch the common cold in many different ways. Some can catch the common cold by breathing in the germ, which gets past the mucus of your nose and into a cell. When a person who has a cold coughs or sneezes, tiny droplets of moisture that contains germs spray out. The common cold can also be caught through direct contact, especially when hands have contact with the eyes or mouth. Not only can the common cold spread through direct contact, but indirect contact too. A child with a cold could touch a toy and another will touch the same toy. People sometimes catch the common cold because they have nasal allergies or physiological stress, which makes them more vulnerable to the cold. Cold weather also allows people to catch colds because of the extra time they spend indoor, which increases the chances of viruses being transmitted from one to another. In addition, the cold weather lowers humidity where cold – causing viruses can survive better. Also, during the cold weather, a person’s nasal passage lining becomes drier reducing the chances of stopping viruses. Lastly, the common cold is neither a genetic nor hormonal disease.
Population most infected by the common cold is relative young children. Children receive six to ten colds a year while adults receive two to four colds. Women in their 20 to 30 years of age catch colds more often than men because of their more frequent contact with children. Adults over 60 years of age have fewer than one cold per year. The common cold this year is more likely to happen in central United States where most of the cool wind is blowing.
Before a common cold starts, warning signs are perceived, some are: stuffy nose, hoarse throat, light...