COLDS-THE COMMON ENEMY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 99, 16 May 1941, Page 9

COLDS-THE COMMON ENEMY

(By DR.

H. B.

TURBOTT

, Director of the Division

of School Hygiene, Health Department)

HE weather has been very changeable lately. Cold southerlies snap along, with touches of frost, tips of hills snowcapped, torrents, and suggestions of hail. Winter comes! And although colds attack any time, it is in the cold season that they flourish. Colds! Who worries about them? That’s just the trouble. " Stay at home for a cold? No fear, it takes more than that to keep me from work!" "What about a picture to-night? I’ve got a rotten cold, but I wouldn’t miss that one." The colds go out to work, to play, to fireside bridge-and keep on spreading. We are inclined to be selfish over colds and go our ways as usual. We kn that pneumonia lurks somewhere, and tuberculosis gets a start, in colds that don’t clear up. But most of us throw one off quickly, and keep on our feet the while. Well, we do a lot of harm. Colds are contagious. The cause is an infectious agent, virus or germ, of yet unsettled nature. They spread from one person to another, through tiny droplets ex-

haled by the sufferer. In coughing, sneezing, laughing or loud talking, droplets spray out into the air for several feet. Mothers give colds to babies and toddlers through kisses. A friend’s handshake may give us one, or anything handled by him or sneezed on if shortly afterwards touched by us. A Deadly " Sniper " You see now where the damage is done. The person who sneezes or coughs without covering with a. handkerchief spreads trouble. If in that infectious stage, running nose, watering eyes, with slight .fever-an unrealised, degree up, and most folk hardly notice this-he sprays dozens of others in crowded trams, trains, or buses. He’s a "sniper" whose machine gun sprays infective bullets; he certainly mows down his . victims, If only he would stay at home, in bed, for one or two days. He is then a public benefactor protecting his neighbour, but helping himself too. Have you ever tried it? You probably know all about the ordinary cold-those wretched first few days, the miserable stuffed-up feeling for days after, and the heavy, "rotten" feeling that lasts about ten

days. Well, try going to bed as soon as infection shows up. You'll be cured and on deck the third day probably. It is wonderful what a day in bed does! So rest in bed, or at least indoors. Before retiring, take a hot bath, a hot drink, some aspirin, and put extra covers on the bed to make you perspire. Stay in bed next day. Drink freely, preferably lemon drinks. Lemons are dear but wonderfully good for colds. Eat simple, light foods. Take care blowing your nose, very gently always, or you'll force germs back into the sinuses, provoking sinusitis or ear troubles. Patent Medicines and " Cures" Don’t take any patent medicines or "cold cures." They won’t help you, no matter who advertises in the press or by the radio, or what your neighbour chats over the fence. The simple routine above will have a cold better in three days. If there’s not a vast improvement in twenty-four hours call your doctor. Call him, too, if you’ve kept on your feet, and a cough persists and won’t clear away. How simple it is! Protect yourself: dodge those with colds, wash hands before eating, use individual towels, etc. Protect others: smother coughs and sneezes with your handkerchief, Take the short cut to cure, a day in bed, and in this one action be good to yourself and look after others, too. Only in this very individual way can we defeat our common enemy, the common cold.

(Next week:

"M ilk-Our Best

Single Food," by Dr.

Muriel

Bell