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The Common Cold Essay, Research Paper

The common cold has been plaguing humankind

since the beginning of human existence. Even in

these advanced times, there is no vaccine or cure.

There are many symptoms that accompany the

common cold. Some of these infamous symptoms

are a runny nose, caused by inflammation of the

nasal tissues, resulting in over production of mucus

to trap the virus, and coughing. there are two

different kinds or types of coughs that are

common with colds. The first, is the less common

dry hacking cough, these kinds are more likely to

keep you up at night and just plainly annoy you

than do any thing else. The other more common

type of cough is the kind whose purpose is to

expel mucus and or phlegm. These help to combat

the cold by helping to expel the mucus that has the

virus trapped in it. Other symptoms include a slight

tingle or tickle in the back of the throat that usually

turns into a sore throat and sneezing. Both of these

symptoms are was for your body to help expel

phlegm or mucus from the body. Another

symptom is swelling of the face and or neck

usually accompanied by pain around the eyes,

nose, and forehead. This pain and swelling is

caused by the introduction of the virus into your

upper respiratory tract, therefore causing mucus

building up in your nasal passages and then in your

sinuses causing them both to become impacted.

Many people complain of hoarseness, aches and

pains in their joints, fever of about 101 degrees,

and general aches and pains all over their bodies

(Anthanasoid). There are at least two hundred

different kinds of viruses that are known to cause

what is known as the common cold, and an

unknown number of undiscovered causes (Nourse

56). The virus who is usually responsible for a

cold is called a rhinovirus, and it accounts for

around thirty to fifty percent of all colds that afflict

the adult part of the human population. The virus

that is secondly responsible for most common

colds, is called a coronavirus, and it is only

different form a rhinovirus by a margin of few

select proteins in it’s molecular structure. The

rhinovirus is so small that it can only be measured

in milimicrons, one milimicron is about

1/25,000,000 of an inch, that means that about

five hundred rhioviruses can fit on the point of a

pin. That fact makes the rhinovirus and the

coronavirus categorized in the medium territory.

The virus cannot reproduce by itself. In fact

scientists cannot even decide whether to classify it

as an animal or a plant, because it is so primitive.

To reproduce, the virus must first latch onto a

nearby cell and inject it’s genetic makeup into the

cell. It then tells the cell to make as many viruses

as it can, using the chemicals inside of the cell. The

cell keep producing viruses until the outer cell wall

explodes releasing all of the new viruses into the

bloodstream. The best part about many of the

viruses that cause colds is that they are self

limiting. That means that after the virus reproduces

so much it just stops and dies. In the case of

common colds, the virus runs it’s course in about

ten to fourteen days. Because it kills itself, the

infected person’s immune system doesn’t realy

have to do anything except maybe keep it in their

upper respiratory track. There have been

documented cases when a cold actually

inadvertently killed someone. In these rare cases,

the viral infection lead to a bacterial infection in the

middle ear and therefore lead to death. This is why

if your ears hurt, you should see a doctor

immediately (Knight 10-15, 23-25). There are

many misconceptions about the spread of the

common cold. For one thing, a person who

doesn’t cover their mouth when coughing and or

sneezing, is not necessarily spreading their cold

says John Poppy (104). Another article in the

"Mayo Clinic Health Letter" stated that coughing

and sneezing is one of the things that spreads the

cold virus the most. The reasoning behind that is,

the cough or sneeze spreads the viral particles all

around. Then people touch the spot that has one

of these particles on it with their hands and rub

their hands on their nose and mouth. This action

spreads the cold even further. This same article

said that kissing doesn’t necessarily spread the

cold virus (1-2). Laurie Tarkan says that the main

way that the cold virus is spread is through

touching of the nose and mouth, like the Mayo

Clinic Letter. She also stated that the reason that

colds seam to flourish in the winter is that people

tend to group together in schools and in homes,

therefor spreading the virus throughout the

population. Also more people tend to fly durring

the winter. In order to keep the cabin pressurized,

the airplane circulates the air, and that means that

if one person has a cold and coughs then the

whole plane will have a great chance to become

infected. Also at higher altitudes, the air seriously

dries out the nasal membrane in the nose and

therefore make a person more susceptible to the

virus. Because of this, experts like Laurie Tarkan

suggest to drink allot

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