Flu surging: How to reduce your cold and flu symptoms this season

“After you clear infection, you are in a really good antiviral state,” Ross said. “You generate memory cells that go into hibernation, and they can be rapidly recalled when the body encounters another respiratory infection.”

But it’s possible that in a given season, a person can suffer several bouts of colds and flu-like symptoms as there are many different viruses and they are constantly mutating into different strains, said Ronald Eccles, an emeritus professor of biosciences at Cardiff University in the U.K.

“The positive side is that usually one type of virus dominates in any wave of illness in the community and tends to crowd out other viruses,” Eccles said. “So we all go down sick with that virus and then usually have a respite from other infections.”

Eccles says wearing a respirator N95 mask will protect a person from inhaling cold and flu viruses. Simple face masks only protect others from any droplets that a person may breathe out, and provide little protection to yourself, he said.

A saline nasal solution can also be beneficial. “It actually helps the cells that are infected rupture,” Ross said. “So it reduces the number of particles and makes a bad environment for the cells to grow in. It can alleviate the amount of virus that is shed, and you feel better.”

Ross also recommends gargling as an effective means of reducing symptoms, since the salt solution raises pH in the mouth to a level that is not hospitable for cells.

Eccles’ research has looked at the feasibility of creating a nasal spray that might reduce cold symptoms. In a trial that he led, he found that a spray made from carrageenan, a common food thickening agent, exhibited antiviral activity. He recommended the additive be further studied for its potential in combating colds, flu and COVID-19.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has also funded a trial, partially taking place at Emory University, that aims to verify the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine that would be given as a nasal spray.

But the likelihood of a nasal cold and flu vaccine is remote, said Dr. Alex Greninger, professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington.

“Many rhinovirus genotypes co-circulate at the same time,” Greninger said. “This is way different than flu or SARS-CoV-2, where one strain takes over and displaces the other strains. We found more than 30 rhinovirus genotypes circulating in the same month.”

Rhinoviruses are the most frequent cause of the common cold and are a common viral trigger for asthma attacks, according to the CDC.

Greninger said that 170+ genotypes, or variants on the cold virus, would need to be covered by a vaccine — and that it might not be practical given how mild colds are for most people.

The CDC estimates there have been at least 24 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 13,000 deaths from flu so far this season, according to its website.

The cold is the most common illness known, and it usually brings with it sneezing, scratchy throat and runny nose. People in the United States catch an estimated 1 billion colds each year, according to the NIH, costing the U.S. economy about $40 billion a year, according to researchers at Stanford University.

The CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get an annual influenza, or flu, vaccine to reduce the severity of flu symptoms. There is currently no vaccine against the common cold.