Common Cold

Common Cold.

  • Posted: 31/3/2017
  • By: Alvizia Healthcare

What is Common Cold?

The upper respiratory tract infection caused by many viruses is called common cold. It mainly affects nose and throat. Common cold is an infectious disease.

How is it caused?

Common cold is transmitted by infected airborne droplets or even by direct contact with infected person. A common cold may last for 2-3 days.
Common cold is caused by viruses (rhinoviruses being the most common), transmission ( respiratory secretions) – from infected person, inherited cases, sometimes poor weather leads to acute cold conditions.
People generally catch cold in winters, but sometimes due to change in weather or rainy season can also cause cold.

Symptoms of Common Cold

  • Sore throat
  • Headache
  • Runny nose
  • Chest pain
  • Sneezing
  • Coughing
  • Body ache
  • Fever

In most of the cases, it lasts not more than 3 days, but people with weaker immune system can also face symptoms of pneumonia.

Therapy

The treatment provided in case of a common cold is symptomatic, which means treatment for the symptoms and not the causes. Medicines like antihistamines, cough syrups and analgesics are commonly given to the patient. Antibiotics should not be taken in case of a common cold. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are generally prescribed and suggested for treating the symptoms of common cold.
Thus medications given for common cold are only for the relief from those body aches, headache, sore throat, coughing etc. There is no vaccine for the purpose of treating the common cold.
There are several herbal ways for the treatment of common cold. Some herbs along with ginger tea are given to the patient for recovery from cold. Many other home remedies are there but it is always good to visit your doctor once , so that the conditions may not get worse

PREVENTION

In order to stay away from cold, one should not come in close contact with a cold infected person. Hand shakes, kissing, touching the same objects as that person, using same handkerchief etc. should be strictly avoided.

WHAT THE INFECTED PERSON CAN DO?

The infected person should practice basic hygiene habits like covering face while sneezing, use separate tissues for themselves, stay away from large crowd, stay home, washing hands and other simpler ways to avoid proliferating the disease.
The prime purpose of doing and taking up these general hygiene care is to stop the germs to spread.

Medicines

As mentioned above, there is no vaccine for common cold. Being a symptomatic disease, only medicines (like NSAIDs) for treating the symptoms are available. The NSAIDs are available at alvizia healthcare.
For more detail about drugs visit our website www.alviziahealthcare.com