Causes of Common Cold

Viruses cause infection by overcoming the body's complex defense system. The body's first line of defense in the respiratory tract is mucus, produced by the membranes in the nose and throat. Virus multiply in the outer mucus cell layer of the throat. This results in congestion of the walls of the throat which in turn manifest as an irritation or a tickle in the throat. This "tickly throat" compels the patient to cough in order to clear the irritation. This cough carries the virus from the patient and spread into the atmosphere. This in turn spreads the infection to other healthy people.

How are Colds Spread ?

Depending on the virus type, any or all of the following routes of transmission may be common:

Touching infectious respiratory secretions on skin or personal objects which have been contaminated by the patient.
Inhaling relatively large particles of respiratory secretions transported briefly in the air.
Inhaling droplets, smaller infectious particles from coughing or sneezing by patients suffering from cold.

Published on Aug 04, 2014
Last Updated on Dec 12, 2019

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Dr. Reeja Tharu. 2021. Causes of Common Cold. Medindia, viewed May 21, 2022, https://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/commoncold_causes.htm.

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Nurullah120

Great article i like it.

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keir34

can a six yearold take a bath while heâ€™s coughing?

Lilybeth_closa

All the more that you have to give bath to your 6 year old coughing child, a speedy warm bath is good enough to open skin pores, remember that the skn is the largest organ of the body, an excretory organ too. Warm bath would not only open skin pores but will also stimulate good blood circulation thus helps the condition of your coughing child because once you have good blood circulation, blood becomes active in transporting nutrients to & removing wastes from the cell. In alternative medicine particularly healing comes from inside going out, we have to clear the eliminative channels to rid off wastes because if the system is loaded with wastes it delays healing & or forms another illness by which the weak parts or organs becomes the first target..

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