A question about colds

[SilentMute]

Okay, show of hands!:toetap05: How many of you believe you can get over your cold faster if you infect someone else? There is no scientific data to support this idea, and it probably isn't true--but I think a lot of people believe it. After all, that is the one thing everyone is willing to share! People always seem more willing to get close to you when they are hacking.

Of course, I have to admit...I do seem to get better just as my mom starts having symptoms--but I never purposely infect her. However, it is too easy to share things when you live together.

[Lulim]

Are there really people out there believing their bacteria would leave their system and take up their abode in the next best person coming along? I never heard about such a ridiculous idea before ... :rolleyes:

[billl]

Never heard of this either. Do you simply suspect that other people believe it, or have you had occasion to se people act that way or something? It'd be an interesting superstition or something--but I've never heard of this before.

At the risk of getting schooled and humiliated online by OrphanPip or someone else more expert than I am in epidemiology, it occurs to me that it might be the case that some fast-spreading colds could be more likely (but not assured) to spend a shorter period within a host, simply because other colds that don't spread as easily would need to evolve to become longer-lasting in order to survive and spread. That is, perhaps the sudden weakening of a cold could be an effect that is related to how easily got transmitted to a friend or relative, etc., but not caused by that transmission. Since it spreads easily, it didn't need to evolve the ability to last long in individual hosts. If you didn't pass it on to anyone, of course, this sort of cold would still dissipate just as quickly, but we might be likely to soon see it take hold in others because it is good at doing that.

Maybe that is the effect you are noticing. Short-lived-but-quick-to-spread colds vs. long-lasting-and-more-slowly-contagious colds.

[OrphanPip]

I think Bill is essentially right, the point where you're most contagious tends to be just when you're starting to feel sick with the cold, and by the time you've infected people around you, you're already on your way to being over it while they're just starting to get sick.

On to what Bill was saying about the need for short lived infections to be highly contagious, that's essentially true also, because if they weren't highly contagious they would go extinct. It tends to be true of respiratory viruses, it's not universal though.

Something like Ebola is highly contagious, and long-lasting, often being fatal without medical attention. Ebola would quickly go extinct if it was restricted to humans though, it has an animal reservoir species where it is likely a lot less deadly. Likewise, rabies is highly contagious and fatal, and only survives because it is much less deadly in its reservoir species, bats.

Then there are things like HPV, easily transmitted through skin contact, and causing life long infections. Almost every adult human being is infected with some strain or other of HPV.

Generally speaking, a virus that is easily cleared by its host immune system has to be quick spreading to stay around. Though not every highly contagious virus is easily cleared.

[billl]

phew!

[SilentMute]

Are there really people out there believing their bacteria would leave their system and take up their abode in the next best person coming along? I never heard about such a ridiculous idea before ... :rolleyes:

Yes, actually, there are people that believe this.

I always thought, myself, that a person already had infected others--and by the time they get sick--the original source is on the way to recovery because they have been fighting it longer. It takes a few days for you to get sick after exposure--this I know. So when you get sick, you can't blame the person that sneezed on you that day--you should blame the person that sneezed on you three days ago or so.

What is annoying is that people don't stay home when they are sick and infect the rest of us. Of course, now many people can't afford to stay home--since they can't miss a day of work. But that is another thread.

[Maximilianus]

I don't have a clue as to what a cold is. I seem to have a magnet of my own design to attract sharp flus... or the viruses develop a fondness for me for a reason that remains a mystery. However, whenever I unintentionally pass it to my family it's often the three of us being sick, almost at the same time. I perceive too little or no relief at all after delivering the package to another host, and vaccines often fail to provide the desired shield :rolleyes: Summarizing, I get no benefit by infecting others http://smiles.kolobok.us/artists/just_cuz/JC_shakehead.gif


At the risk of getting schooled and humiliated online by OrphanPip or someone else more expert than I am in epidemiology...


I think Bill is essentially right...


phew!

billl is having a relieved end of year :p :D

[billl]

Just being careful. :)

[kiki1982]

I think Bill is essentially right, the point where you're most contagious tends to be just when you're starting to feel sick with the cold, and by the time you've infected people around you, you're already on your way to being over it while they're just starting to get sick.

That's what my mother used to tell me, of nearly all diseases. Incubation period, you see... Glad she was right :)

It would have been pretty stupid of nature to make viruses that make people sick before they were contagious, though. Imagine, no chance as everyone walks away directly... :sosp:

But, no, I have never heard of this thing of having to contaminate someone in order to recover... That's weird.

And, by the way, thank you, OrphanPip for that very scientific explanation. ;)

[Maximilianus]

But, no, I have never heard of this thing of having to contaminate someone in order to recover... That's weird.
People have been developing the weirdest theories for ages. I remember some old ladies who used to embrace the belief that pregnancy has to do with a vertical/horizontal disposition of the woman involved, so they would tell their daughters "do it standing if you don't want to get pregnant" :rolleyes:

[SilentMute]

How to prevent getting pregnant is a thread in itself. ;)

[Virgil]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I found that question very funny. If true we would consciously go around spreading diseases. Why would anyone think this?

[Maximilianus]

How to prevent getting pregnant is a thread in itself. ;)
Yes, it is :)


:lol: :lol: :lol: I found that question very funny. If true we would consciously go around spreading diseases.
Cool revenge against our trespassers :p


Why would anyone think this?
'Cause we, the peoples on Earth, have a way for weirdness :p