common cold

One common decongestant, phenylephrine, was found ineffective this fall. Doctors are skeptical about the rest of the over-the-counter cold cures lineup.

Hospitalizations are down 62% for childhood respiratory illnesses, a study shows. Masking and physical distancing are keeping a variety of viruses in check, but will these behaviors last?

Coughs, sore throats and runny noses are common in fall and winter, and they rarely signal dire disease. But with COVID-19 a threat this year and flu an annual hazard, here's what you need to know.

The hope is that a person who's recovered from COVID-19 would have some protection against re-infection in the future. Here's what researchers do — and don't — know.

Dr. Ananda Prasad first turned up zinc's benefits to human growth back in the 1960s. Years later, his study and others found that the right dose of zinc can cut a cold's duration by days.

For parents desperate to calm a kid's hacking cough, so the whole family can get some sleep, turns out there's evidence that a common kitchen ingredient works better than OTC medicine.

The virus that has emerged in China is part of a family known as coronaviruses. Here's how some of the best-known coronaviruses compare with this newly identified member of the viral family.