Once one gets over a cold or sickness, how long does one usually remain immune to this particular pathogen? Is it ever possible to infect onself indirectly? For example, getting a cold from someone who got it from you in the first place, or not cleaning household goods (towels, dishes, etc.) properly and using them later?
Once you recover from your cold, you cannot get sick from reinfection for a very long time. Maybe never. You may get a different cold but you can safely use your same toothbrush and nurse the others in your household without fear of getting the same cold again.
Thanks, that’s what I suspected. Come to think of it, I suppose immunity to viruses must last as long as vaccines do.
But does the same hold true for bacterial infections? I’m currently recovering from strep throat.
Bacteria are different. Strep, for instance, occasionally comes back with a vengance even after following treatment religiously. And the immunity you do build up against it can do more harm than good (heart or kidney damage from the antibodies). That’s why strep infections are treated quickly and aggressively - you don’t really want your body to produce a lot of strep antibodies. The best policy with nasty bacterial infections is paranoia and frequent hand washing.
Take your antibiotic doses on time until you have finished the meds. Hope you are feeling better.
It is possible to get a different sickness from something that youre trying to recover from. For example a head cold can move into the chest, but usually coughing is associated with post nasal drip.
Also normally benign bacteria can do horrible things for no apparent reason, meningitis is an example of this.
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Originally posted by ejrn *
doses on time* until you have finished the meds.**
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(bolding mine) I just wanted to emphasize this. Continue the antibiotic treatment until the regimen is completed. Don’t try to save any for the next infection. If it’s supposed to be three weeks, take it for three weeks. Do NOT stop after a week and a half because you feel better, as early termination of treatment protocols is one of the causes behind microbial antibiotic resistance.
Going back to colds, there’s been some interesting research in that field lately. Conventional wisdom has been that immunity to cold viruses lasts for a matter of months, not lifetime. This is because cold viruses don’t get into the bloodstream and thus only activate a small portion of the immune system. There has been no clear mechanism to get long-lasting immunity out of a mucosal infection.
However, there has been some recent research that suggests that cold immunity may be much longer than suspected, possibly a matter of years. I’d have to search for cites, but I suppose I could do so if requested. Well, begged.
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*Originally posted by Beeblebrox *
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Originally posted by ejrn *
doses on time* until you have finished the meds.**
[bold] SMEGHEAD [/bold], I’ve been begging you for months, ever since Suep Du Jour contadicted your prior statement that only IgA (have I got the right one?) is activated, and not the long-lasting IgE. So, I’ve been in a quandary ever since. I’ve been shaking my head every day wondering if I get long-lasting protection from each of the colds I’ve had. I kinda suspect the protection only lasts for months since scientists say there are only 200-500 different cold viruses (including the rhinoviruses and the enteroviruses), and I’ve had thousands in my lifetime.
Well, shoot. I have to admit that the cite I was going to dig up was going to be the site linked to by Suep, which I have to admit I never got around to reading.
I’m really not an expert in the field, though I play one on the boards…
Thanks everyone for the response.
Three weeks? Is that typical for strep? My doctor only prescribed 5 days’ worth (yes, I’ve gone for a follwup and asked again, he thinks that’s all I need). I have a suspicion doctors here in Japan are abusing and mis-using antibiotics… One time one of them said “it’s just a cold, probably a virus, but I’ll give you some antibiotics just in case.”
I have a question about the “on time” part. I have strep throat, and was given antibiotics this morning. The instuctions say I ought to take them at even intervals, but…when I’m allowed to go back to work on wednesday, will it do me harm to take them at 7 and 7 instead of 10 and 10, which I presume I will be doing for the next couple of days since that’s when I took the first one today? Or should I just take the next pill at 7 tonight and get up tomorrow to take one at 7am? This is more confusing that I anticipated…