Upper Respiratory Tract Infections With Focus on The Common Cold

Excerpt

Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) encompass a broad topic that involves a large variety of pathogens. The ubiquitous clinical syndrome recognized as the "common cold" and the rhinovirus, its most frequent etiology, will be focused on here. Other names for the common cold are acute nasopharyngitis and acute coryza. In addition to URTIs, rhinovirus can cause infection of the lower respiratory tract, has been implicated in the exacerbation of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and may act as a fellow pathogen in the development of viral and bacterial infections involving both the upper and lower respiratory tracts.

The common cold is a syndrome that manifests as a mild-to-moderate, self-limited URTI, characterized by inflammation that causes malaise, nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, sneezing, pharyngitis, cough, and occasional fever and headache. Various other respiratory viruses and bacteria, mentioned here but not presented in detail, can cause common cold symptoms that overlap with those due to rhinovirus. Please see StatPearls' companion resources, "Pharyngitis," "Acute Laryngitis," "Acute Sinusitis," "Recurrent Acute Rhinosinusitis," "Acute Otitis Media," "Mastoiditis," "Influenza," "Parainfluenza Virus," "Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Children," "Adenoviruses," "Human Metapneumovirus," and "Features Evaluation and Treatment of Coronavirus COVID19," for further information on these pathogenic etiologies.

URTIs are the most common acute infectious diseases in the world. In the vast majority of cases, they tend to be self-limited but, on occasion, can evolve into chronic and significant complications. They invariably impact the quality of life, cause absence from school and work, and substantially contribute to the prescription of unnecessary antibiotics. In the United States, the annual economic burden of URTIs is estimated to be 60 billion dollars.