 | Common Cold Recovery Period
  It is imperative that those that suffer from the influenza and cold virus take great care during the common cold recovery period. The great majority of flu victims recover uneventfully and fully. Only about 1 per cent develops complications that require hospitalization. But those rare complications can be serious. Bacterial pneumonia, an inflammation of the lung tissue by any of several bacteria, is the most common complication. Like flu, it is associated with high fever, chills, chest pain and constitutional malaise.
When coming in on the coat tails of flu, it usually reveals itself as a rebound or additional boost in temperature—occasionally up to a dangerously high 105° or 106° F. The thin, watery mucus that accompanies the cough of influenza turns to a copious, thick, yellow or greenish material, sometimes rust-colored by blood. Breathing becomes shallow and difficult and, in consequence, it speeds up; so does the pulse rate. In critical cases cyanosis—a faint blue tinge under the fingernails, on the lips, on the tips of the ears or over the cheekbones, which is a sign of insufficient oxygen—may be noticeable.
Bacterial pneumonia often is caused by mucus that seeps down into the lungs. Seepage can occur, for example, if influenza viruses severely damage the cilia lining parts of the respiratory tract; the cilia, which normally move mucus into the gastrointestinal tract, may no longer be able to dispose of mucus safely. The mucus contains bacteria such as Hemophilus influenza, streptococcus and staphylococcus. They ordinarily are quite harmless, but when large numbers of such bacteria multiply in the normally sterile reaches of the lower respiratory tract, they become highly destructive. Before the age of antibiotics, such invaders almost invariably caused fatal infections. Even today, with antibiotics that can cure bacterial pneumonia, the disease kills about 25 per cent of those hospitalized with it.
Viral pneumonia, a rarer lung infection caused by the influenza virus itself, offers a still bleaker prognosis. This disease usually behaves like an extraordinarily vicious influenza, with rapid onset, an unrelenting cough and soaring fever; most cases of viral pneumonia end in death from respiratory or cardiac collapse. | Most Popular Common Cold And Flu ArticlesHow Does The Common Cold Affect Your Body Palpitations And Need To Cough Cough With Frothy White Sputum Types Of Rheumatic Heart Fever Pain Constant Low Grade Fever Nutritional Requirements Needed To Treat Fever Flu Symptoms With Neck And Back Pain And Muscle Aches Who Discovered Influenza Is Canada Ready For A Pandemic Influenza | |
| Other secondary illnesses, while less serious, present a greater range of symptoms and dangers. Bronchitis is normally part of flu; the term merely indicates an inflammation of the bronchial tubes, which lead from the windpipe to the lungs. Occasionally a bacterial infection aggravates this condition. Milder than pneumonia, bacterial bronchitis nonetheless represents an escalation in the patient’s general state of respiratory distress and requires medical attention; it can develop into pneumonia.
A pronounced dry, short cough gradually develops into a moist-sounding cough as mucus accumulates and begins to loosen in the bronchial passages. Often, the wheezing of simple breathing becomes audible across a room. It is imperative that great care is taken during the common cold recovery period. | Twitter About The Common Cold Cure  | | Common Cold Tip Of The Day Gender makes a surprising difference. Mothers usually have closer contact with their children than fathers do, and this fact may help explain why women in their twenties and thirties experience so many more respiratory diseases than men of the same age. |
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