What to do?

• Wash your hands often with soap and water. If you have no chance to wash their hands with water, wipe them with Alcohol Hand Gel.
• Cough and sneeze into a handkerchief or a hand. Then wash your hands with soap and water. Use Alcohol Hand Gel if you have no chance to wash their hands.
• You do not have with a handkerchief? Then when you cough turn away from the others.
• If you feel that you are about to sneeze, substitute your palm and chihnite it.
• Do not touch eyes, nose, or mouth.
• As often as possible wipe the public objects, such as cell phones and keys. Viruses can live on surfaces for several hours.
• Avoid crowds during flu season and the common cold.

With regard to the effectiveness of vitamin C, a recent review of research conducted within 65 years, discovered that he has a definite advantage. The researchers found no evidence that vitamin C prevents colds. However, they did find that vitamin C may shorten the period of the disease cold. One major study has proved that people who took megadoses of vitamin C – 8d on the first day of the disease – shortened its duration.

The best natural way to prevent colds – it strengthens the immune system. Products of dark greens such as spinach, enriched with vitamins A and C. Salmon – a good source of fatty acids Omega-3 needed to combat inflammation. Low-fat yogurt can also help stimulate the immune system.

Regular exercise – aerobics and walking – and boost the immune system. People who play sports, of course, can catch the virus, but they have symptoms of illness appear in a weaker form, and they recover faster than people who do not strengthen your body.

A good option – chicken soup, to the same main dish will help alleviate nasal congestion. Hot toddy may help you fall asleep, but you should not drink alcohol together with drugs against the common cold.

OTC cold medicines can relieve pain and reduce the temperature. However, doctors no longer believe in the need to shoot down a low temperature, with the exception of small children and the elderly and people with chronic heart or lung disease. Low temperature helps the body fight off infection by suppressing the growth of viruses or bacteria, and activating the immune system.

Children should not take aspirin because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome, a dangerous liver disease.

Remedy against a stuffy nose may help relieve breathing, reducing inflammation of the mucous membranes in the nose. But they can not use more than two or three days. A saline nasal sprays and solutions which may also help alleviate breathing, can be used for a long time.

Expectorants are not too effective. For weakly expressed cough is more appropriate water and fruit juices. Doctors and drug manufacturer argued that OTC cough and cold can not be given to children under four years. Relieve a sore throat can gargling with salt water.

The common cold is easily spread through viruses. Here are answers to commonquestions about the common cold.

1. What is the difference between colds and flu?

Although both the flu and common cold are respiratory diseases, they are caused by different viruses. Because they have similar symptoms, it is difficult to distinguish them from each other. But generally cold symptoms are manifested much milder than flu symptoms.

Cold symptoms include:
sore throat

snuffle

running nose

cough

low-grade temperature (37 ° -38 ° C)

Influenza, on the other hand, often causes higher fever, chills, muscle aches, and fatigue.

2. Why there is no vaccine for colds?

Colds can be caused by nearly 250 different viruses. It is too difficult for scientists – to develop a vaccine that protects against all viruses that cause colds. In addition, there is no urgent need for a vaccine against the common cold, since this is a minor throat infection, the nose and sinuses. Colds proceeds without serious complications. You experience discomfort for several days and then it all goes away.

3. Could my cold symptoms actually be allergies?

If you have a runny nose, but you do not feel pain and have no temperature, it may well be that you are allergic. In addition, if your symptoms persist for two weeks, your eyes are red and itch, it is obvious that you are allergic. However, it is often difficult to determine because people with allergies and asthma often suffer from colds. Perhaps, their lungs are already inflamed and irritated, so it is harder to fight the cold virus.

4. Can I get sick from cold hypothermia?

This is one of the most persistent myths about colds. The only way to get sick a cold – it’s catching colds virus. Cold air can only affect the poor conditions of the organism, such as asthma, which in any case would have weakened your immune system. This would make your body more susceptible to cold viruses, but only if you enter into contact with him. If you have a cold, after exposure to cold, it’s just a coincidence.

5. Why does my child always has a cold?

Pupils incredibly quickly spread the virus and infect one another by airborne droplets. Plus, kids are very active, constantly in contact with each other. And they generally suffer from lack of care – because they do not like to wash their hands. They do not cover their noses and mouths when sneezing or coughing. But most importantly, their active body does not immediately displays symptoms of the disease, and they continue to spread the virus, while should already be insulated, as carriers of infection.

Coming back of Spanish flu

Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-1919 affected more than 500 million people in the whole world. The mortal virus took more than 400 million lives then. Since that time world flu epidemics (pandemics) recurred two times (in 1957 and 1968), however, unlike Spanish flu they were caused by a less mortal virus, since the number of victims was much less than during the pandemic 1918. The results of contemporary researches show that the virus of Spanish flu   was a typical avian flu virus which acquired an ability to propagate in human body and pass from human to human. Presently the issue of possible new bird flu epidemic is discussed at the highest levels. In scientists` opinion the following events should take place for the eruption of pandemic:
1.The avian flu virus should adjust to propagation in lower temperatures than the temperature of bird body. This has already happened. It has been proved by cases of infection of workers in poultry farms in some Asian countries.
The normal bird body temperature is about 420С, whereas the normal temperature of human body does not exceed 37,5 (inner temperature) or 340С (in nasopharynx ). It is obvious that the virus has acquired an ability to propagate in human body, however, only in lungs and trachea, but not in nasopharynx unlike regular flu virus.
2.   Mixing of the genetic material of human flu virus and bird flu virus must occur. According to scientists such a mixing could happen in pigs. The fact is that, the body cells of pigs could equally be affected by human flu and bird flu virus.  While propagating the viruses exchange part of genes, in the result of which new mutant species of viruses with totally new characteristics form. Examination of bodies died of Spanish flu showed that the virus of 1918 was a mutant virus which contained both human and bird flu components. These “mixed” variants of the flu virus are especially dangerous to people, because the recombination of the genetic material provides viruses with new proteins which are not familiar to immune system of human. Getting into human body such a virus starts to propagate without any hindrance within 1-2 weeks, which is enough to kill a human. The Spanish flu virus was a very uncommon one.  Modern researches and historic facts show that mainly young people died of Spanish flu, not children and old people (unlike the regular flu virus) despite the apparent immunosuppressive effect of some components of the virus. Patients affected by Spanish flu died of cardiopulmonary insufficiency associated with massive pneumonia and diffuse lesion of blood vessels of the whole body developing in a few days.
3. The virus should acquire an ability to pass from human to human. This last characteristics of the virus has not been fixated yet, since within the whole history of bird flu detection (the first epidemic among birds and cases of human infection were detected in 1997 in Hong Kong), there has not been any case of passing of the virus from human to human.  It is worth mentioning that if the virus acquires such ability, just one patient infected with mutant virus who would pass the ocean may provoke flu pandemic which would affect the whole world just within a few hours.
Despite all capabilities of modern medicine it would not be possible to prevent bird flu epidemic (in case the virus acquire all necessary characteristics). Presently all efforts to fight bird flu are arrowed at localization and suppression of the disease outbreak among birds.
Most professionals assert that in all probability the problem of Spanish flu recurrence is just a matter of time.