I’m one of those lucky people who gets a cold every five or ten years. It’s about time for me to get a cold. If you’re sick with one more than the usual sneezing time maybe you should go to your doctor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new and virulent strain of adenovirus, which frequently causes the common cold, has spread in parts of the United States, killing 10 people and putting dozens into hospitals, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report detailed cases of people ill since May 2006 with a strain of the virus called adenovirus 14 in New York, Oregon, Washington state and Texas.

“Whether you’re a healthy young adult, an infant or an elderly person, this virus can cause severe respiratory disease at any age,” said John Su, who investigates infectious diseases for the CDC and contributed to the report.

Two of the 10 people who have died from the new strain were infants, Su said. The CDC report said about 140 people have been sickened by the virus and more than 50 hospitalized, including 24 admitted to intensive care units.

Adenoviruses frequently cause acute upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold, but also can cause other illnesses including inflammation of the stomach and intestines, pink eye, bladder infection and rashes.

Colds caused by adenoviruses can be very severe in the very young and the very old as well as in certain other people, like those with compromised immune systems.

“For most everybody else, it causes a mild illnesses, you get over it, life goes on,” Su said in a telephone interview.

“What makes this particular adenovirus a little different is that it has the capability of making healthy young adults severely ill. And that’s unusual for an adenovirus, and that’s why it’s got our attention,” Su added.

It is possible people outside these four states have been sickened by the new strain of the virus, Su said.

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