Why haven’t we cured the common cold?
In: Biology
The Common Cold is caused by about 200 different strains of rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, adenoviruses and enteroviruses.
If you’re talking about a vaccine to prevent that’s a lot of different viruses and strains for a vaccine to have. Plus they tend to mutate a lot.
And the common cold just isn’t enough of a problem for a lot of money to be thrown at it. People may get on average a few colds per year but unless you’re already frail from something else you’re unlikely to die.
As to an actual cure. That’s generally difficult with viral infections. Normal approaches to viral infections is to treat symptoms and let the body do its thing. There are medications known as antivirals which can be used to help the body in this but none so far work against the viruses which cause the common cold.
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