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Cure for common cold might finally be in sight

Published November 1st, 2009 | 0 Comments

It’s often said that many in the media have a well-recognized prejudice for bad news — fires, floods, famines, that sort of thing. But occasionally, there’s the authentic good news story to report, and such comes from the universities of Maryland and Wisconsin, where researchers have announced the cure for the common cold.

Well, not quite; actually, earlier this year, researchers at the two schools announced that they have been successful in completing the main genome sequences of the various viruses related to the common cold.

That, in turn, researchers say, could lead to the development of the first effective treatments.

While most think of colds as merely a nuisance, for the very young and older adults, colds can be a serious matter.

Dr. Stephen Liggett, a professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of its Cardiopulmonary Genomics Program, notes that recent studies indicate early rhinovirus infection in children can program their immune system to develop asthma by adolescence.

Overall, researchers say, the human rhinovirus is responsible for half of all asthma attacks and is a factor in bronchitis, sinusitis, middle ear infections and pneumonia.

The National Institutes of Health estimates there are one billion colds annually in the U.S. If you’ll excuse the pun, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

All those colds cumulatively add up to a major health care burden across the nation. The direct cost in over-the-counter drugs for symptom relief, doctor visits and missed days of work has been calculated at approximately $60 billion annually.

Researchers hope that now that they’ve begun to understand how these viruses fit together on a genetic level they will be able eventually to reach the holy grail — a cure for the common cold, using modern genomic and molecular techniques.

Just think of it: no more noses rubbed raw from boxes of tissue; no more “balloon-head” from too much antihistamine. And just imagine the positive impact of a cold cure on a typical family of four (four fewer weeks of serial misery) or, better yet, on a first-grade classroom, crowded airplane or packed office.

That’s the good news.

The wee, tiny bit of bad news is that all of this is still very much in the research stage, which means any sort of practical application is probably still years away.

But when you’re wearily downing those cold pills and racing through that box of tissues just to get through the day, take comfort. Things will eventually get better.

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