Questions on the common cold

Factual Questions
1

Random quesions on the common cold that I’m clueless on:

  1. Is it possible to get two (or more) colds simultaneously, or back-to-back? Is this any more severe than one?

  2. Say I ended up marooned by myself for a few years on an island, Castaway-style. The only other inhabitants are bugs, crabs, birds, and fish. Do I still contract colds at the same frequency? How about a member of the space station? If not, what happens when I go back home? Am I at increased risk for contracting all the various cold strains I missed out on?

  3. Once I get over a cold, do I have lifetime immunity to that same strain?

  4. Do i have any sort of resistance to a revived cold strain from 100 years ago?

  5. Say I get a cold, and a week later my child comes down with a cold, then a week after that a coworker in my office comes down with a cold as well. What are the chances it is all the same strain? (How concerned should I be about contracting a cold from the co-worker?)

  6. Cold symptoms (fever, mucous production) , from what I know, are caused by the immune system fighting off the cold. Does someone that only gets mild (or no) cold symptoms generally considered to have a better, or worse immune system compared to someone that usually gets more severe cold symptoms?

2

IANAD and can’t really answer any of your questions but, as to #3, I think not. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that a cold virus may go dormant but still remain in your system. I don’t know how else to explain the same “cold” I get, with the exact same symptoms, lasting for the same amount of time (7-10 days) under the same circumstances. If I go three or more nights in a row without getting much sleep I can almost count on what will come next. Otherwise, I almost never get a cold.

3

At last count there are over 200 different viruses that can cause cold symptoms (and still counting). They belong to two different families. but the most common are the rhinoviruses. So, although your body builds up memory cells for the virus you recently had, any of the many others can still infect you.