No, common cold is not a bacterial infection. Common cold is infection of the upper respiratory tract due to viruses. There are almost more than 200 viruses which can cause common cold. Besides there are new viruses on the verge of getting developed on a regular basis and already existing large number of virus makes it difficult for a human body to cope with those many viruses.

 It is not caused due to some kind of bacteria. Symptoms associated with virus infected disease and bacteria infected are almost similar and but can be much more severe then common cold. In case of bacterial infection common symptoms include chills and sweating.  It causes increased pulse rate and breathing at a faster rate. Also it causes fever with high temperature. Whereas the symptoms in case of common cold are mild fever, headache, body aches, fatigue, loss of appetite. The viral fever tends to last for more days compared to the bacterial infection.

There is as such no specific treatment for common cold unlike bacterial infection where there is a fix treatment. There is a belief that observing the Kleenex would help you differentiate between the common cold virus and bacterial infection but it is not true they are almost similar in both cases.