The Common Cold

Day 113 / 365

The common cold is the most frequent infectious disease in humans. And if you ask me, it’s the most annoying one as well. This top google search suggestion shares my hatred towards this disease

There are over 200 different types of viruses that can cause it, with the rhinovirus being the most common one. The worst part is that there is no cure for the common cold. All we can do is treat the symptoms.

Why is it known as ‘cold’

The cold got its name as traditionally the cause has been thought to be prolonged exposure to cold weather. But why do low temperatures make us sick? Although we don’t know for sure, we do have some explanations

Some of the viruses that cause this infection occur more frequently in the winter. Cold decreases out immunity which further contributes to the possibility of catching the infection.

The cause can be social as well, as during cold weather people prefer to stay indoors so the chances of the infection spreading increases.

Why is it incurable?

The reason we have not been able to develop a cure for the cold is that the different viruses that cause the infection have very little in common biologically. Thus it's not possible to create one medicine that can tackle all the different 200 viruses.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The Platypus