How does a cold virus spread from person to person?
Ask the doctor
Q. How does a cold virus spread from person to person?
A. The common cold is most often spread by direct contact with the respiratory secretions of someone who is infected, often by hand-to-hand contact.
Here's how it that can happen:
- The person with the cold touches their mouth or nose (we do this all day long without thinking).
- The cold viruses are now on their hands.
- The person touches another person, such as shaking hands.
- The other person rubs his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.
- Viruses cross the thin "barrier" over the eyes or the lining inside the nose or mouth.
- The viruses are in and so it goes.
It is also possible to become infected by touching a surface - such as a tabletop or doorknob - that someone with a cold recently touched. Cold viruses can survive on these types of surfaces for as long as three hours.
Again without being aware, you might touch your eyes, mouth, or nose. So washing your hands frequently is extremely important to prevent the spread of the common cold.
In addition, when a person with a cold sneezes or coughs, the cold virus can hang in air droplets that can be picked up by someone close by. That's why the person with the cold needs to sneeze or cough into a tissue or into their elbow to help prevent transmitting the cold virus to others.
Image: © Marc Dufresne/Getty Images
About the Author
Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing
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