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About viruses

Interesting facts about the common cold

  1. 2‒4 times: most adults have two to four colds a year.
  2. 6‒8 times: children can easily get six to eight colds a year.
  3. 200 strains: more than 200 virus strains are responsible for the cold.
  4. 40 percent: the most common are human rhinoviruses (HRV) which cause up to 40 percent of all colds.
  5. 100 serotypes: there are around 100 known serotypes of human rhinoviruses (HRV), meaning that a single vaccine cannot be made and that we have the potential to be infected around 100 times by this virus alone. Plus, mutations cause several new strains of the virus.
  6. 48 hours: rhinoviruses survive for three hours outside of the body, and can sometimes live for up to 48 hours on touchable surfaces, such as door knobs, shopping carts and light switches.
  7. 16 million: a single cold virus can have 16 million copies within a day.
  8. Touching and inhaling: colds are spread by touching infected surfaces and then touching your nose or eyes, and to a lesser extent the mouth. Also, you can get infected by inhaling virus-containing droplets in the air after an infected person sneezes or coughs.
  9. 44.44 meters per second: a person’s breath can travel one meter per second, while droplets from a sneeze can travel at about 44.44 meters per second.
  10. 2 meters: the droplets from a sneeze can spread for a distance of 2 meters.
  11. Before the onset of symptoms: sick people are thought to be most contagious when symptoms are at their worst; however they can also infect others even before symptoms develop.
  12. Dry air: the lower the humidity, the more moisture evaporates from sneeze and cough droplets, and the further the germs can travel. Dry air also dries out the mucous lining in our nasal passages, weakening an important protective barrier. Both of these factors contribute to the increase in colds during cold, dry weather.
  13. Vitamin C: vitamin C won’t cure a cold. But, according to scientific research, taking at least 0.2 grams of vitamin C every day may decrease the duration of the disease by a day or two.
  14. 20 seconds: the single best way to avoid getting a cold is to wash your hands frequently. Use soap and wash them in water for at least 20 seconds each time. It’s cheap and easy and more effective than hand sanitizers; but if you don’t have soap and water, sanitizers will do the job too.