THE COMMON COLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1940, Page 8

THE COMMON COLD

PREVENTION AND CURE. Colds are part of the price paid by mankind for the many physical benefits that civilisation brings. They are the penalty of being clothed, of dwelling in houses, and of living communally in villages, towns, and cities. A cold is by no means a serious illness, and would be quite unimportant except for the fact that, unlike most other infectious diseases, a cold confers no immunity against . further attacks. It is possible and not even unusual for an individual to have several colds each year. The symptoms are so well known as to need little description. They can be divided into local and constitutional symptoms. The constitutional symptoms amount to about 48 hours of malaise and some muscular aching, with perhaps a slight rise of temperature up to 99-100 degrees Fahrenheit. The local symptoms are running of the nose and eyes, sore throat, and cough. Bronchitis and bronchitis-pneumonia are rather rare complications, middle ear inflammations which spread to certain hollow bones of the cheek and forehead, known as the nasal accessory sinuses, being less rare, but —considering the large number of people who contract colds —far from common. Many years ago a French physician said that while an untreated cold could be expected to last a fortnight, the duration of a treated cold was usually about 14 days. In this statement there is a great deal of truth. x To stay in bed five to seven days, i with two hot baths each day and to 1 consume very large quantities of fruit I drinks is the best and simplest mode of treatment; but most people are not I prepared to use so weighty and ' troublesome a measure against an illness so little disabling. Three main methods of prevention are widely employed: (1) the use of protective vaccines; (2) the taking of foods containing vitamin D; (3) exposure to ultra-violet light, which brings about the formation of vitamin D in the skin. ; Each of these methods seems to meet with marked success in individual cases, but recent tests carried out in England, covering a few thousand workers, tend to show that the use of vaccines and the giving of vitamin D in the form of oil from the livers of cod and halibut do not reduce the incidence of colds, but that measured doses of ultra-violet light quite definitely do. For individuals the best precaution | against colds is to live an ordinary] healthy life, spending as much time as possible out of doors; and to rely on exercise for warmth in winter rather than on heated rooms and too-thick, clothing. If colds were regarded, by a community as of the same importance as the major infectious diseases, much could be done to reduce their prevalence by prompt isolation of afflicted and contacts, and yet more by the closing of schools and indoor places of amusement during epidemic periods. But a cold is not a serious illness, and it is doubtful whether major measures are any more desirable for its prevention in a community than for its cure in an individual.