The passenger two rows in front of me craned his neck and flashed me the "drop dead" stare, and with that I clinched the most hated person title on the 14-hour flight to Shanghai.

Sure, it was a close contest when that colicky baby started wailing again after a too-brief 15-minute break, but my hacking cough and slurpy symphony of nose blowing won out.

Fortunately, we weren't in the midst of a pandemic like SARS. Otherwise, upon landing, I could expect to be welcomed by a team in white hazmat suits and then escorted to a two-star hotel on the outskirts of town for an extended stay. The common cold is just that - common. It hits every man, woman and child on the planet. In the case of adults, two to three times a year. For children, double that. Treating it has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry with as many pharmaceutical treatments as there are folk remedies.

Although it's the most frequently infectious illness around, there is no cure. Unlike its cousin pneumonia, which kills more than 2 million people annually, a cold is fairly benign unless you count the aches, raspy throat, stuffy nose, chapped lips and spot-on sounding seal barks. And to everyone's regret, with more than 200 viruses changing the makeup of a cold, the discovery of a vaccine has so far proved fruitless.

A generation ago, treating a cold meant taking two aspirin, plenty of liquids and bed rest. Now the multiple varieties of cold medicines stretches along the length of the aisle in the drugstore. Like a Chinese takeout, there are different combinations of medicines to treat specific symptoms you're saddled with.

Sinus pressure and a croupy cough? Check. Sore throat, runny nose and a gushing geyser of mucus so mighty it puts Old Faithful to shame? Done. In the TV age of Top Chef, cough syrups have gone bistro, leaving behind the sweet but staid grape flavor for the more enticing apple cinnamon, chamomile, green tea and fruit punch.

Of course, with this new array of relief in small capsules comes a premium in price, especially if the words "severe", "maximum", "peak" and "all-day relief" are found in the description. Then there are the proven home remedies that work just as well, like chicken soup, neti pots, plenty of liquids and steamy showers.

Traditional Chinese medicine also has its adherents. And while many prepared medicines are available over the counter, you first need to diagnose whether your cold is "wind heat" or "wind cold" to take the preparation most suited to you. Feeling feverish, having a sore throat and sweating point to the cause as wind heat. Body aches, neck stiffness and chills generally indicate wind cold.

Ban Lan Gen, sold in packets to be dissolved in hot water and drunk is pretty effective, cutting short the course of a cold by one to three days. Unfortunately, like most Chinese herbal medicines, it tastes like a hot cup of rotting dead leaves mashed with a handful of garden soil and tossed with yesterday's coffee grounds. Elderberry-flavored syrup it's not.

The thing about having a cold is that you won't get much sympathy from anyone. In fact, our first thoughts are how to avoid you as much as we can because once we get a cold, we want to have someone to blame.

If only we could encase like the Bubble Boy coworkers who insist on showing up with a fever, rat-tat-a-tatting their rhinovirus germs around the office like a Gatling gun.

Do us all a favor and break the cycle of infection - stay at home and quarantine yourself. Believe me, no one wants to see you, especially the guy in row 17C who by now must be getting a scratchy throat

Contact the writer at: dinahchinadaily@gmail.com.