Common Cold

Never self medicate & "Consult your Physician" for treatment of the common cold because



Cold weather waits....and gives a sore throat, stuffy nose and coughing. but what is common cold exactly>>
It is termed as Acute viral nasopharyngitis, or acute coryza and is highly contagious, viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system. Primary causes are picornaviruses (including rhinoviruses) or coronaviruses.
The primary method to prevent infection is hand-washing to minimize person-to-person transmission of the virus. There are no antiviral drugs approved to treat or cure the infection.

The common cold virus is transmitted between people by one of two mechanisms:

* in aerosol form generated by coughing, sneezing.
* from contact with the saliva or nasal secretions of an infected person, either directly or from contaminated surfaces
The virus enters the cells of the lining of the nasopharynx (the area between the nose and throat), and rapidly multiplies.
The common cold can lead to opportunistic coinfections or superinfections such as acute bronchitis, bronchiolitis, croup, pneumonia, sinusitis, otitis media, or strep throat.
Antibiotics, targeted primarily to microorganisms like bacteria and fungus, do not have any beneficial effect against the common cold. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses.and that's why we take antibiotics to keep these"opportunistic infections" caused by other pathogens at a bay.

Common cold is not caused by "cold">> What??

Although common colds are seasonal, with more occurring during winter, experiments so far have failed to produce evidence that short-term exposure to cold weather or direct chilling increases susceptibility to infection, implying that the seasonal variation is instead due to a change in behaviors such as increased time spent indoors at close proximity to others.

Researchers at the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University conducted a study to "test the hypothesis that acute cooling of the feet causes the onset of common cold symptoms." The study measured the subjects' self-reported cold symptoms, and belief they had a cold, but not whether an actual respiratory infection developed. It found that a significantly greater number of those subjects chilled developed cold symptoms 4 or 5 days after the chilling. It concludes that the onset of common cold symptoms can be caused by acute chilling of the feet. Some possible explanations were suggested for the symptoms, such as placebo, or constriction of blood vessels, however "further studies are needed to determine the relationship of symptom generation to any respiratory infection.

What makes us normal again after infection??

The common cold is self-limiting, and the host's immune system effectively deals with the infection. Within a few days, the body's humoral immune response begins producing specific antibodies that can prevent the virus from infecting cells. Additionally, as part of the cell-mediated immune response, leukocytes destroy the virus through phagocytosis and destroy infected cells to prevent further viral replication. In healthy, immunocompetent individuals, the common cold resolves in seven days on average.

Any Antivirals??
There are no approved antiviral drugs for the common cold.
ViroPharma and Schering-Plough are developing an antiviral drug, pleconaril, that targets picornaviruses, the viruses that cause the majority of common colds. Pleconaril has been shown to be effective in an oral form. Schering-Plough is developing an intra-nasal formulation that may have fewer adverse effects.