Why can’t we cure the common cold?

cold

Year by year over the centuries no ailment has caused such general misery as the common cold. Certainly, at times more devastating diseases have hit the human race, but for sheer persistence and nuisance value the cold outstrips all other afflictions. Studies show that school-children may get ten colds a year; young adults, particularly parents, average two or three.

Countless weapons have been used to defend humanity against the cold. The Greeks tried blood-letting. The Roman historian Pliny the Younger advocated kissing the hairy muzzle of a mouse. For more than forty years, from 1946 to 1990, relays of volunteers endured ten days’ isolation in the Common Cold Unit in Wiltshire, England, willingly catching colds in bids to help scientists find an answer. The unit shut down for lack of funds before they did.

In all these efforts, we have won a few battles. We know that we aren’t fighting just one cunning guerrilla but an elusive army. That is, without doubt, the prime reason for out failure to win the war. Common colds are  caused by any one of almost 200 viruses, which attack the mucous membranes lining the noes and throat. Soon, the nose runs, the throat gets sore and the head may ache.

A cold virus spreads usually by water vapour in the breath. Threat’s why we tend to get more colds in winter when we are shut inside, and why those mixing with others are more regular victims than those living or working alone. Hand-to-hand contact spreads cold germs, which may be picked up too from door handles, hand towels and other contaminated objects. The British unit discovered that cold doesn’t start colds. Volunteers given wet feet, hosed with cold water of left in draughty corridors got no more colds than those kept warm and cosy.

Evidence shows that as we grow older we become immune to a wide variety of viruses that may give us colds. For that reason, children have more colds than adults, and some elderly adults suffer no colds at all. Introvers get more severe colds and give out more viruses Among all the countermeasures two hold out promise. The drug interferon, which the body produces naturally in response to viral infections, has had some success in preventing colds and reducing their severity; and synthetic antigens, which trigger an immune response, also have proved effective in test.

Until science finds an answer, if it ever does, we can all take some sensible precautions. Regular hand washing prevents the transfer of germs. So does isolation. We’d all have fewer colds if those who got them kept clear of others, and always masked their coughs and sneezes.