health

The common cold is a contagious viral infection of the upper respiratory
tract (nose and throat). It is self-limiting, meaning that it clears up by
itself without the need for special medical treatment.
The disease got its name in the sixteenth century, when English doctors
noticed that colds are more frequent in northern countries during
the winter months and thought that exposure to low temperatures caused
colds. It was not until the eighteenth century that Benjamin Franklin
suggested that cold weather by itself does not cause colds but helps them
to spread by driving people indoors where they are crowded more closely
together. Although viruses had not been discovered by Franklin’s day, he
was correct in thinking that colds are transmitted from one person to
another through the air or by direct contact.