Why can ’t we cure the common cold?

After thousands of years of failure, some scientists believe a breakthrough might finally be in sight. By Nicola DavisonThe common cold has the twin distinction of being both the world ’s most widespread infectious disease and one of the most elusive. The name is a problem, for starters. In almost every Indo-European language, one of the words for the disease relates to low temperature, yet experiments have shown that low temperature neither increases the likelihood of catching a cold, nor the severity of symptoms. Then there is the “common” part, which seems to imply that there is a single, indiscriminate pathogen at large. In reality, more than 200 viruses provoke cold-like illness, each one deploying its own peculiar chemical and genetic strategy to evade the body’ s defences.It is hard to think of another disease that inspires the same level of collective resignation. The common cold slinks through homes and schools, towns and cities, making people miserable for a few days without warranting much afterthought. Adults suffer an average of between two and four colds each year, and children up to 10, and we have come to accept this as an inevitable part of life.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Common cold Health & wellbeing Society Life and style Infectious diseases Immunology Vaccines and immunisation Source Type: news