Why we still don’t have a cure for the common cold
Despite colds costing American businesses US$25 billion in lost productivity each year, experts still consider them a ‘short-lived and relatively mild illness’
Modern science has eradicated smallpox, extended life expectancy, and made huge gains in battling some of the world’s deadliest diseases. So why can’t we knock out the humble cold?
The short answer is twofold.
First, what we think of as a cold is actually caused by many different viruses. Even the most common among those, rhinovirus, has more than a hundred different strains.
“Curing” a cold would actually mean eradicating a long list of respiratory viruses that happen to cause similar symptoms. Those symptoms, incidentally, are mostly just your immune system kicking into high gear to fight off an infection, something that can manifest as inflammation in the throat and congestion in the nose.
Second, while sniffling and coughing is no fun, a cold is pretty low down on the list of ailments that need curing. It can be a concern for infants, the elderly, or those with pre-existing respiratory conditions, but “for the majority of us, a common cold is more annoyance than threat,” says Ian Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland.