Season of colds goes for throat

Photo / Herald on Sunday

The season of the lingering cold has started, causing discomfort for sufferers and worry for workers exposed to sneezy colleagues.

Central Auckland GPs Gerald Young and Donna Marshall said yesterday that they were seeing many patients with colds, especially those bothered by an irritating cough.

"I don't know if it's more than usual [for the time of year], said Dr Marshall.

She said autumn and spring were the main seasons for colds, while the peak periods for influenza were typically in June and September.

"It's a lot of colds [at present], not so much flu. I haven't seen swine flu for some weeks."

A fortnight ago, colds were mainly causing a runny nose. But now a persistent cough was prompting people to seek medical help.

"I'm seeing people coming in in the second week of coughing."

Dr Marshall said people could go to work with a cold, as long as they observed basic infection control guidelines, although they should consider staying home if they had a significant fever.

Dr Young said people were not highly infectious at the point when they had a lingering cough following a cold. The cough was caused by post-infection inflammation of the lining of the throat, rather than by the virus that had caused the cold.

There was little that could be done to treat a cough - people could use cough lozenges or sip water for relief, or be prescribed pain relief pills if their sleep was being disturbed by coughing. If the cough was producing green/brown mucus, it could be caused by a secondary bacterial infection that needed treatment.

The Health Ministry does not have specific cold guidelines. But to control the spread of influenza, which is also caused by a virus but is generally a more serious respiratory illness, it urges people to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, dispose of the tissue in a lined rubbish bin and wash hands frequently.