Children under 6 years of age are at higher risk for colds, but healthy adults can also expect to have two or three colds a year.
Most people recover from the common cold within a week or 10 days. Symptoms may last longer in people who smoke. If symptoms do not improve, see your doctor.
Symptoms of the common cold usually appear one to three days after exposure to a cold-causing virus. Signs and symptoms, which can vary from person to person, may include the following:
- Nasal congestion or runny nose
- Sore throat
- Cough
- Congestion
- Mild body aches or headache
- Sneezing
- Low fever
- Generally not feeling well (malaise)
In our space, we want to share some of these curiosities with you.
1. By the time you're 75, you'll have had at least 150 colds.
- Various studies have concluded that each of us typically suffers between two and five colds a year. If we take into account the current life expectancy in Mexico, each of us will have suffered at least 166 colds in our lifetime.
2. The cold virus is not just one!
- Of course not. There are more than 200 viruses that can cause the common cold. For this reason, the human body never develops a resistance to the disease. Among the most common viruses that cause colds are rhinoviruses and coronaviruses.
3. Children can get up to 12 colds in a year!
- Parents can attest to this. How many times has a child had a cold, been fine for two days, and then returned home from school with cold symptoms?
4. A quarter of people with a cold experience no symptoms.
- We're all familiar with the symptoms of a cold; after all, it's one of the most common everyday illnesses. However, not everyone knew that some people can be infected with a cold virus and not experience a cough, sneeze, or runny nose.
5. A sneeze can travel up to 60 km per hour!
- The reality is that measuring the speed of a sneeze can't be easy, but this is what specialists calculate. In some cases, it's believed that a sneeze can even exceed that speed, and the expelled saliva droplets can fall as far as five meters away!
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6. Viruses of everyday illnesses can survive on a variety of surfaces.
- When we sneeze, we spread the virus around us, and it can remain active on various surfaces. For example, the flu virus survives for about 24 hours, and the common cold virus, up to seven days! Do you now understand why it's so important to cover your mouth with your elbow when you sneeze? This way, you avoid infecting others.
7. The flu is constantly evolving.
- The flu is one of the most common illnesses we suffer from throughout our lives. You probably know that there are three types of influenza: A (the most virulent and affects humans and birds), B (the most common and affects only humans), and C (the least common and affects humans and animals).
- However, new strains of each type of influenza emerge every year. Because of this, vaccines can't always protect us, and we end up getting sick.
8. In the last century, several influenza epidemics have been known.
- Nowadays, the flu is an everyday illness that we don't usually pay much attention to. However, as we've already seen, it's extremely contagious through saliva and can also cause complications such as pneumonia .
- The Spanish flu lasted from 1918 to 1919 and affected 40% of the world's population. In fact, it claimed the lives of approximately 50 million people worldwide. Curiously, despite its name, it didn't originate in Spain but in the United States.
- Asian flu originated in China in 1957 due to a mutation in a virus carried by wild ducks in combination with a human strain.
- The Hong Kong flu left approximately one million dead. Thanks to technological advances, a vaccine was developed that prevented further human deaths.
- The 1976 swine flu claimed more than 12,000 lives and caused panic among the population, as the virus was similar to that of the great epidemic of 1918.
- Avian flu first broke out in Hong Kong in 1997. The virus was identified as H5N1 and, after being brought under control, reappeared in Asia and Europe in 2003.
