The cold virus can be carried by children from school, or by parents from the work place to your home. Crowded places like malls and movie houses are also common sources of the virus. When you spend a lot of time indoors with family, friends, and co-workers, the droplets of saliva and mucus carrying the cold virus have little space to circulate. This makes it easier for you to pick up the virus from objects handled by the sick person. Some 95 percent of persons exposed to the cold virus acquire the infection, but only 75 percent show symptoms.

To lessen your and your family’s chances of catching a cold, here are tips to follow.

(First published as “Sniffle Send-off” in the “Good Health” section of Good Housekeeping Philippines’ May 2008 issue. Adapted for use in Female Network. Photo by superhua via Flickr Creative Commons.)