Talk:Common cold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

↓    Skip to table of contents    ↓

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Common cold article.
Article policies
Archives: 1
Good article Common cold was a nominee for Natural sciences good article, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:
To-do list for Common cold: edit · history · watch · refresh

Here are some tasks you can do:
  • Verify: Add more references
  • Cleanup: Convert external links to inline references
  • Expand: Discuss colds in other animals and transmission between different species
Priority 2  
Archive
Archives
1


Contents

[edit] Nowhere in this article does it state why people get repitions of the common cold.

Why do people get the common cold up to 20-30 times or more in their life when the articcle states that only 5 diseases cause symptoms of the common cold? Would the body be immune to any common cold like viruses after being in contact with those first 5 viruses? Spitfire (talk) 16:33, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

added note on number of serotypes of rhinovirus —G716 <T·C> 22:35, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
The viruses mutate too fast and often for your immune system to matter. All that your immune system can do is make you immune to the last flavor that came by. The problem is you rarely see the same set of mutations. I don't know how many genes a virus has to mutate with but say it has five possible mutated versions, and there are five different viruses, you could get the cold 25 different times. I am guessing the viruses have the ability to mutate way more. Dachande (talk) 13:21, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] cold and common cold

I don't remember the name of the researchers or the institution where the research was performed, but i had seen something on TV about the relation between cold and common cold. No, it is not the cold itself that makes people sick, but it does lower resistance. When for example, your chest is exposed to cold, extra blood goes there to keep it warm. But some of this blood comes from around your nasal cavities where it was previously, through the anti-bodies, keeping the resident 'common-cold-virus' at bay. With the resulting lack of anti-bodies, the virus is not resisted and you get sick. Has anyone else heard of this?

Rachid12051 (talk) 19:59, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Interesting -- if you find a reliable source for the research, I'll summarize for the article. —G716 <T·C> 01:04, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Cost Of The Common Cold & Influenza

Please state in the image caption with which country and which war this "Wartime poster" is associated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.141.48.52 (talk) 08:01, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Done—G716 <T·C> 04:07, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

Unfortunately, this article does not meet the Good Article criteria at the present time, and in fact, is still quite a long ways off. There are numerous organizational issues with the article; most notably, it appears that there are too many subsections and sub-sub-sections that could probably be combined or reorganized for clarity. For starters, I'd put 'prevention' and 'treatment' closer together. Make sure that the treatments listed there are actually treatments of actual symptoms of the common cold. Some of the ones listed actually appear to be preventative, such as Vitamin C.

What is the purpose of the 'exposure to cold weather'; seems like this could go into a section on the causes or pathology.

The 'economic cost' section is pretty specific to the US, and isn't inclusive of other nations; thereby, the 'worldwide view' tag that's there still applies. This must be settled prior to GA status.

While the references used in the article appear to be reasonably good and reliable sources, there's still a lot of sections and material that is insufficiently cited. Any 'citation needed' tags must also be resolved for GA as well.

The article's images, while appropriately tagged, are not organized very well, particularly towards the beginning of the article, and around the 'economic cost' section. They seem to be kind of crammed in there, like there's too many, or maybe this is an indication that there's not enough actual text in the article, so it needs expansion there. It might also help to put the table of contents where it should be placed by default (to the left and immediately after the summary/lead section, instead of at the right underneath the infobox).

The 'symptoms' and 'complications' sections could use some significant expansion, as well as the lead section. The lead should provide a good summary of the article; it might help to review WP:LEAD for tips here.

Check the Medical Manual of Style for guidelines and templates on how medically-related articles on diseases should look, and specifically what sections that need to be included that may be missing. The article, at present, is not in compliance with WP:MEDMOS.

Hope this helps improve the article. This may not be a complete listing of every individual issue, but hopefully will give editors some guidelines towards getting it up to standards. Once the article meets the key criteria listed at WP:WIAGA, and is probably at least around 85-90% compliant with WP:MEDMOS, I think it can be promoted to GA quite easily. Cheers! Dr. Cash (talk) 03:57, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Steam Inhalation

How can you have a placebo-controlled double-blind test on steam inhalation? What was the placebo? AngleWyrm (talk) 01:52, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Impending Doom?

"a sense of impending doom..."

Is that really a symptom? Maybe it should be removed. Sixium (talk) 05:42, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] To whoever changed "dollars" to "money" in the intro

Would you believe I was struggling to find a word for "dollars" but "money" just didn't come to me? Probably becauase I HAVE A FREAKING COLD!. Thanks for your help - good edit!139.48.81.98 (talk) 21:18, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] H

"Herbs often used in homeopathic cold remedies". Using herbs in remedy makes it herbal, not homeopathic? Victordk13 (talk) 21:57, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Why of Symptoms

It might be nice to include an explanation of why a cold causes the symptoms it does, such as achiness and sore throat (especially the early signs). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.14.57.240 (talk) 23:57, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] International remedies

Wouldn't it be a good idea to include various nations' traditions in using natural remedies in treating the common cold? For example: the Americans traditionally believe that chicken soup does the trick, in the UK it's honey and lemon juice mixed with hot water, in Germany it's fennel tea with honey, in Russia it's milk, garlic and honey. Any thoughts? Jamyskis Whisper, Contribs 05:55, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

I have heard that heroin is a cure for the common cold, but they won't tell anybody or we'll have a nation of addicts.

[edit] Immunity to the common cold?

In the paragraph under 'Virus' there is a reference to the ability to gain complete immunity to the common cold 'by eating nothing but plastic'. The website link that is given as a reference for this does not mention plastic. Is the entry a typo or a misinterpretation of the sited reference website? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.242.47.51 (talk) 13:17, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Is common cold the most widespread illness in the world (save for perhaps, malnutrition, not just due to poverty, but also due to eating disorders, junk food, fad diets, etc.)? Surely, no living organism is immune to it. Does the article also mention as to how many people in the world might be suffering from common cold at one given time?59.184.189.65 (talk) 07:20, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Immunity to the Common Cold?

Removed the reference to plastic to be more compatible with the source provided.

Darydale (talk) 16:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)