Common cold and treatment
The common cold is a viral infection of your upper respiratory tract (nose and throat). While it can be bothersome, it is usually harmless and resolves on its own within a week or two. Most people who suffer from the common cold use medicines for treatment, even though there is no medicine that can cure the common cold. Antibiotics don't work on viruses because they target specific bacterial structures and processes (like cell walls or reproduction machinery) that viruses lack, as viruses are fundamentally different—they aren't cells and need to hijack host cells to multiply, making them immune to drugs designed for bacteria, which are self-sufficient living cells. Using them for viruses is ineffective and contributes to the serious problem of antibiotic resistance. 1. Cause of the Common Cold. The primary cause of the common cold is a viral infection. There are over 200 different ...