COLDS: IS IT HAND DELIVERED...

The case for hand-to-hand spread of colds is strongly supported by research conducted at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville by Dr. Jack Gwaltney, Jr., and Dr. J. Owen Hendley. Their studies seem to show that cold viruses are spread through hand-to-hand contact with people who have colds, or by touching surfaces that have been contaminated with cold virus, followed by "self-inoculation"-touching the virus-contaminated hand to the nose or eyes (cold viruses do not live in the eyes, but the tear ducts drain into the nose, providing easy passage for cold viruses). Since people commonly touch their faces several times an hour, it is easy to see how such self-inoculation can occur.

Drs. Gwaltney and Hendley tested various possible methods of transmission. For three days and nights, they housed people with colds caused by a particular virus in the same room with people susceptible to that virus. Chicken wire between them prevented any hand contact, but the healthy people were exposed to small droplets released by the cold sufferers when they talked or coughed. Another group of susceptible people were exposed to larger droplets expelled when cold-infected subjects sitting at the same small table coughed, sneezed, or talked. Finally, a third group of susceptibles had direct hand-to-hand contact with contaminated secretions from cold sufferers and then touched their own noses and eyes. None of the ten people exposed to small aerosol particles got sick, and only one of the twelve exposed to large aerosol particles caught the same cold. But in the group with hand-to-hand contact, eleven out of fifteen came down with the donors' colds.

In a later study, Drs. Gwaltney and Hendley demonstrated a high rate of cold virus transmission through the handles of ceramic coffee cups. Microbiologists have shown that cold viruses can live for hours on inanimate objects like door knobs or telephone receivers, especially if they remain moist.

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Anti-Infectives