How long does a person with a common cold (modern versions) stay infectious?

a) as long as the sore throat – 2 days
b) as long as the fatigue ~ 4 days
c) as long as the nasal problems ~ 1 to 2 weeks
d) as long as the cough ~ 2 to 4 weeks (or more)
e) forever, just with declining infectiousness.

Has there been any scientific study of infectiveness?

Has there been any recent (in the past 15 to 20 years) study of the time-dependent spread and decline of a common cold around the world?

I remembered reading something about this:

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/infections/how-long-is-someone-infectious-after-a-viral-infection/

There was some research about spread of the common cold involving people living in an enclosed environment and employing or not employing hand washing. I’ll see if I can find it.

Is this any use?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3311988/

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/201/10/1509/992720

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327893/

Enough from me now.

I wonder if royalty look down on the common cold

Queen “We do not get the common cold peasants we get royal colds, so much more dignified, a polite little cough and that’s it”

buffy said:

Is this any use?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3311988/

Limited data! Not even enough data in the literature to tell us the primary mode of transmission of the common cold! Whether by coughs and sneezes or not.

> https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/201/10/1509/992720

The flu, not the common cold, but interesting nonetheless.

> we followed up initially healthy individuals to quantify trends in viral shedding

Good work. Have to do it that way, study people in a sick environment before they get sick in order to catch the onset, and to check for contagiousness preceding symptoms.

> We followed up 1015 household contacts in 322 households. A total of 135 (13%) contacts were confirmed to have influenza virus infection. Onset is defined as the first day with 2 or more of the seven symptoms.

Good start.

> Peak molecular viral shedding for influenza A virus infection occurred on the day of onset, followed by a steady decrease in viral shedding through the following 7 days.

That settles that. The graphs confirm this, though they jog up and down a bit, and viral load on day 6 can be higher than on day 1.

buffy said:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327893/

Enough from me now.

A meta-analysis, so not necessarily current.

> found the median incubation period to be 5·6 days (95% CI 4·8–6·3) for adenovirus, 3·2 days (95% CI 2·8–3·7) for human coronavirus

(as against 0 to 2 days for the above influenza study)

Hmm, for the latest two colds, I found that the latency period prior to the start of the sore throat could easily be measured in minutes, if not seconds.

mollwollfumble said:

buffy said:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327893/

Enough from me now.

A meta-analysis, so not necessarily current.

> found the median incubation period to be 5·6 days (95% CI 4·8–6·3) for adenovirus, 3·2 days (95% CI 2·8–3·7) for human coronavirus

(as against 0 to 2 days for the above influenza study)

Hmm, for the latest two colds, I found that the latency period prior to the start of the sore throat could easily be measured in minutes, if not seconds.

Oh wait, only 2 days for rhinovirus.

Which are are current common colds, adenovirus, coronavirus or rhinovirus?

“Well over 200 virus strains are implicated in causing the common cold, with rhinoviruses being the most common”. Ah, OK.

lady and I have got a special one at the moment.

i’ve been blaming her, visiting doctor’s waiting rooms, hospitals etc.

I’m about to make some coffee. Would you like some, transition?

btm said:

I’m about to make some coffee. Would you like some, transition?

please, do it

btm said:

I’m about to make some coffee. Would you like some, transition?

Sorry, that was meant for chat.

transition said:

lady and I have got a special one at the moment.

i’ve been blaming her, visiting doctor’s waiting rooms, hospitals etc.

Yes. Very likely.