Effective measures for the primary prevention of acute viral nasopharyngitis include avoiding close contact with patients and washing hands regularly.

The most effective measures for preventing the common cold include:

• Avoiding close contact with people who have a cold.
• Hand hygiene and avoid touching mouth and face.
• In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended alcohol-based hand gels as an effective method for reducing infectious viruses on the hands of health care workers.^[1] As with hand washing with soap and water, alcohol gels provide no residual protection from re-infection.
• Antibacterial soaps have no effect on the cold virus; it is the mechanical action of hand washing that removes the viral particles.^[2]

Common cold is caused by a large variety of viruses which mutate frequently during reproduction resulting in constant variation in viral strains. Thus, successful immunization is highly improbable.