The common cold is a viral infection of your upper respiratory tract — your nose and throat. A common cold is usually harmless, although it may not feel that way. If it's not a runny nose, sore throat and cough, it's the watery eyes, sneezing and congestion — or maybe all of the above. In fact, because any one of more than 200 viruses can cause a common cold, symptoms tend to vary greatly.
Most adults are likely to have a common cold two to four times a year. Children, especially preschoolers, may have a common cold as many as six to 10 times annually.
Most people recover from a common cold in about a week or two. If symptoms don't improve, see your doctor.
©1998-2009 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). Terms of use.
It's that time of year to make your list, check it twice -- and hit the stores. Happily, some retailers today are realizing that shoppers want a healthy experience as well as bargains.
It was early on a Monday, just the seventh week of school, when Danelle Olivares decided she would have to keep her 5-year-old daughter home from kindergarten. Trinity had a nasty stomach bug, but no fever, and Olivares figured that a day of rest at home would make things OK.
More than half of all adult Americans say they don't want to get the H1N1 flu vaccine, according to a new national poll.
Nearly 3,900 people, including about 540 children, are believed to have died from the H1N1 flu in the first six months of the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
A preliminary report suggesting that N95 respirators -- filtering devices worn over the mouth and nose -- protect against swine flu better than surgical face masks seems to be incorrect, researchers revealed during a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
The H1N1 virus has now become the dominant influenza virus around the globe, with high levels and an increase of activity in many regions, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
On a recent flight from San Francisco, California, to Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Julie Gerberding was thrilled to get bumped up to first class. The thrill, however, quickly disappeared: As she did her victory walk to the front cabin, she noticed that the woman in the seat next to hers was hacking up a lung.
Nate Wordell, 7, just feels lousy: swollen eyes, cough, high fever, stomach ache and he's dehydrated. Nate has H1N1.
Nancy Brizendine's slow-paced life in California's Antelope Valley has become something of a slick race track.
In the new "super flu" era, who among us hasn't thought of bundling up our kiddos in hats, gloves, and surgical masks this winter? Better yet, how about plastic bubbles? (Remember that true story?)
As the new H1N1 flu virus keeps spreading, more vaccine is available to fight it, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Nearly one-third, or 28 percent, of adults and children hospitalized with H1N1, also known as swine flu, have asthma. That's more than any other chronic condition, according to a recent analysis of cases published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
There's a reason for each and every sniffle, sneeze, ache, and pain. Learn why your body behaves the way it does, and discover the quickest ways to feel better.
Yessica Maher of Los Angeles, California, feels let down. She had wanted to get the H1N1 vaccine for herself and her children, but that's proving to be difficult.
Yessica Maher of Los Angeles, California, feels let down. She had wanted to get the H1N1 vaccine for herself and her children, but that's proving to be difficult.
New research suggests that nearly half of patients hospitalized with the H1N1 virus had no underlying conditions, an increase from prior findings, a federal health official said Tuesday.
An analysis of the sickest swine flu patients in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand suggests that relatively healthy adolescents and young adults are among the most likely to get very sick after an H1N1 infection, a pattern similar to that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Swine flu vaccines are rolling out this month -- finally. Health-care workers in Indiana and Tennessee were the first to get the nose-spray version, while New Yorkers clamoring for the H1N1 vaccine finally had their chance too.
A few weeks ago, 22-year-old Tatiana Gulenkina felt bad. Tired with a headache and high fever, Gulenkina knew she was coming down with something. Yet she wasn't sure with what.
Mary Peterson of Des Moines, Washington, doesn't believe the vaccine for the novel H1N1 flu has been studied enough to get it for herself and her daughters, who are 1 and 3 years old.
For 13-year-old Brandon Marti, the intranasal vaccine felt "good," "cold" and "watery" at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday.
Next week, the long-awaited H1N1 vaccine is expected to arrive. At least three of the four vaccine makers have begun shipping their products to undisclosed distribution centers.
At least three of the four makers of H1N1 vaccine have begun shipping their products, their representatives told CNN Tuesday.
At the beginning of the school year, a couple of hundred parents, myself included, gathered in the middle school lounge for the principal's back-to-school speech. The chatting hushed as the principal walked from the back of the room to the podium. As she proceeded down the aisle, parting the crowd of parents, she carried with her the biggest bottle of hand sanitizer I've ever seen.
There will be more than enough doses of the H1N1 vaccine to go around in the United States, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday.
The reminders are everywhere: Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizers. Stay away from class if you're sick.
When Tyra Smith's boyfriend, Chris Lewis, first suggested they be guinea pigs in a H1N1 vaccination study in August, she wasn't so crazy about the idea. But then she warmed to it: While she doesn't like needles, she thought she'd help out because she knew H1N1 was a serious virus.
Health officials expect more than 3 million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to be available in the first week of October.
For the past several months, Amy Wolf has been glued to the television, intently watching for information on how best to prepare for H1N1 flu.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved applications from four manufacturers to make H1N1 flu vaccine, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday.
The H1N1 flu vaccine will be available earlier than had been expected, the director of the nation's top disease agency told CNN on Monday.
A single low dose of H1N1 vaccine may be enough to protect adults from the flu virus that has been spreading around the world, new data shows.
Federal authorities said Tuesday that health care providers could consider simply watching for flu symptoms in some individuals rather than prescribing preventive antiviral drugs right away if a person has been exposed to the flu.
China has developed a vaccine for swine flu and is set to become the first country in the world to begin mass inoculations, but there are concerns over possible side effects, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
Children with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities should be among the first to be vaccinated against H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Thursday.
An advisory panel is recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 influenza.
The federal government is reintroducing a powerful weapon in the fight against the H1N1 flu virus: Elmo.
Over this past week, I had some interesting conversations with colleagues who are also health care professionals. These conversations usually start with, "You know what I hate about the media ... ?"
Andrew Stein, 10, and his brother, Nathan, 7, are having a typical end-of-summer vacation: hanging out at the pool, visiting their grandparents and waiting for the beginning of school.
The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel.
Brazil has confirmed 557 deaths caused by H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world, the nation's Health Ministry says.
It started with a sore throat. Then her chest was burning.
The world will soon see an "explosion" of swine flu cases as the H1N1 virus spreads rapidly around the world, a top World Health Organization official said Friday.
The Obama administration Wednesday urged employers to adopt "flexible and non-punitive" sick-leave policies as it released new guidelines for containing the spread of the H1N1 virus in the coming flu season.
Even 6-year-olds at Hamilton Central School in central New York came to school prepared for swine flu. Jessica Poyer, a first-grade teacher, noticed in the spring that kids had begun bringing their own hand sanitizer, tissues and water bottles.
More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.
A federal advisory committee issued sweeping guidelines Wednesday for a vaccination campaign against the pandemic swine flu strain, identifying more than half the U.S. population as targets for the first round of vaccinations.
Mainland China reported its first case of swine flu -- a 30-year-old man "currently enrolled in a university in the United States," the country's ministry of health said.
Questions abound about how to best inoculate the world against swine flu as health officials plan for a campaign that could dwarf any previous flu vaccination effort.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned consumers to stop using certain Zicam nasal cold remedy products, saying they can cause users to lose their sense of smell permanently.
The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to its highest level, saying the H1N1 virus has spread to enough countries to be considered a global pandemic.
A sharp increase in the number of reported cases of the H1N1 virus in Australia may prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the first global pandemic in over forty years.
A report released Thursday commended the government for developing plans and stockpiling antivirals after the avian flu scare but warned that gaps still exist and that the health system may not be prepared in a more severe outbreak.
The World Health Organization announced Tuesday it is still considering increasing its pandemic alert level to phase 6 because of growing worldwide cases of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received a candidate vaccine virus for swine flu from one institution Friday, spokesman Thomas Skinner said in an e-mail.
Public health officials are seeing a number of outbreaks of swine flu at schools nationwide, but closing those schools may not always be the best public health measure, a federal scientist said Tuesday.
Health officials say the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, is likely to cause more illnesses and deaths in the United States, even though much of the initial anxiety has eased.
An assistant principal who died after being hospitalized with the H1N1 virus did have an underlying condition, the New York City's health commissioner said Monday.
With mostly mild cases of swine flu in the United States, swine flu fears are lessening. But viruses have a way of re-appearing. While nobody has a crystal ball, here are some thoughts about what the 2009 H1N1 virus might do in the months to come.
Roy Braswell was 9 years old when the flu pandemic of 1918 hit.
When the World Health Organization raised its influenza pandemic alert from a Phase 4 to a Phase 5 last week, there was a bit of a gasp heard round the world.
The swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, is all over the news. A string of cases have been reported across the United States, as well as across the globe, with Mexico the hardest hit country, so far.
If there's a blessing in the current swine flu epidemic, it's how benign the illness seems to be outside the central disease cluster in Mexico. But history offers a dark warning to anyone ready to write off the 2009 H1N1 virus.
Over the past week, I've been inundated with questions about swine flu, via Facebook, Twitter, CNN blogs and e-mail. So this week I'm empowering people with information about swine flu: how to protect yourself, what all the numbers mean and why you shouldn't freak out.
A total of seven cases of a previously undetected strain of swine flu have been confirmed in humans in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. None of the patients has had direct contact with pigs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating two cases of swine flu detected in children in the San Diego, California, area last week.
Your saliva is doing all kinds of useful things for you all the time -- for instance, helping you chew and taste food. It's also home to more than 600 species of bacteria, which are harmlessly enjoying the moisture of your mouth.
For most, the flu is a winter inconvenience -- stuffy nose, fever, body aches and a few days of bed rest. But what seems fairly routine also can become life-threatening.
Jake Austin, 10 months old, loves playing on the ground. On a typical February morning, Jake and his 4-year-old brother, Hank, are rolling around on the family's shiny hardwood floor, the same floor where they and their parents track in dirt from outside every day.
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it has stopped reviewing drug applications from an India-based pharmaceutical plant, alleging that officials there falsified data and test results in applications, some of which the agency has already approved.
The flu season got a late start this year, but it is finally picking up speed, according to activity on Google Flu Trends, which tracks search terms plugged into Google, not actual flu cases.
Researchers have solved the first step in treating the common cold, by mapping its entire genome, or genetic map, teams from the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported Thursday.
The cold, dry air of winter can give you chapped lips, cracked hands, and now, a study suggests, a better chance of getting the flu. A new analysis of previous data shows that in low-humidity conditions, the influenza virus is more likely survive, possibly giving it a better shot at spreading from person to person and making its way to you.
Are you getting enough sleep? If not, it could be hurting your health.
It's no secret that cold and flu season peaks in winter. And if you're looking for ways to stay well, one priority, say experts, is simple: Follow a wholesome diet, just as you should any time of year. But that can be a tall order during the busy holiday season, when hectic social schedules and family commitments often interfere with regular meals.
A common misperception is that colds are associated with winter weather. But research shows that people actually get more colds during the spring and summer months.
It started around 1 a.m. My son, Liam, was 14 months old, and the noises coming from his room didn't seem completely human: There was a sort of honking bark followed by a whistle-y kind of breathing.
Hypothermia develops when body temperature, usually at 98.6ºF, drops below 90ºF. Frostbite occurs when parts of our bodies -- usually fingers and toes -- freeze because the blood vessels have constricted and blood flow is reduced. According to the Red Cross, about 700 people in the United States die every year from hypothermia and frostbite. People can become lost in the wilderness, stranded in their cars or trapped at home without utilities.
Sinusitis affects 39 million people each year, making it one of the most common health problems in the United States. Makers of a noninvasive procedure called balloon sinuplasty say this treatment provides instant results and a quick recovery time.
If you have a fever, headache and runny nose, you might go to Google and type the words "flu symptoms" to see whether you've come down with influenza.
Record numbers of early voters are lining up across America, and one nonprofit hopes health is on at least some of their minds.
All children 6 months to 18 years old should receive the flu vaccine this year, federal officials said Monday, offering protection to an additional 30 million children.
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