Are you ill? If not, you probably know someone who is - or at the very least someone who has just recovered.

Coughs and colds, it seems, are rampant at the moment.

And, if the anecdotes of people I know are anything to go by, the bug going round seems to be a particularly nasty one.

Sore throat? Tick. Streaming nose? Tick. Sinus pressure? Double tick.

What's going on?