I had an idea that it was just an extremely common virus that we can’t cure. However, upon looking it up some sources say that there are over 200+ viruses that cause the common cold. Does that mean the common cold is just some blanket term we have for viruses that cause these symptoms?
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The common cold is a syndrome (a constellation of symptoms) which can be caused by several different viruses. It’s difficult to count the number of viruses because of how many strains, variants and subvariants exist if each. But it’s thought that the most colds are caused by rhinoviruses, while many of the others are caused by non-SARSCoV2 coronaviruses.
It can also be caused by respiratory syncitial virus, adenovirus, coxsackievirus, parainfluenza virus, influenza and of course SARSCoV2 (covid-19), but there are several other potential viruses than can cause similar symptoms. Many of these virus also can cause more several disease, whereby most people wouldn’t call it a cold any more. These are more appropriately called flu like illnesses, which unfortunately some get mixed up with the stomach flu, which usually has nothing to do with influenza at all.
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