to ask why scientists still haven't found a cure for the common cold?

[RVF400]

It's 2012 for christ's sake, we have space tourism, autonomous deep sea submarines and we can access gazillions of bytes of data using miniscule phones we keep in our pockets. So am I the only one wondering what the hold up is?

AND WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR??????

But the pharmaceutical companies make a fortune out of selling you Lemsip etc! Get well soon.

Because if the cold virus died out then there would be nothing to kill the aliens when they land and try to take over the planet.

I asked the chemist this last week as i was drowning in my own snot apparently every cold is different cos its a virus , I said aww ok well i need drugs give me drugs

I understand why they haven't but am in a fug of self pity too today. Have a massive pile of tissues on the sofa next to me and half of boots just to make me feel close to human. Yuck.

Hope you feel better soon.

mynameisntfuckingwarren

You have my favourite MN name ever! digs out DVDs

Say no mon amour

oooh, hadn't considered the alien angle.

Bfing so no lemsip. Sob.

RVF have you got olbos oil my dh is sniffing that at the moment not sure if its ok while breastfeeding but if you are sniffing something cant see why not , I had the lurgy last week Dh this week poor buggers sinues are blocked ,

Of course there is a cure, however it would not be financially viable to the drug companies to release it. the millions spent on flu/cold medications per year would be lost.

Because viruses are the real, sentient (and possibly inter-galactic) life forms of this plant, and we humans are merely their larder.

Well only Vicks is making money out of me at the moment Fabby.
Think I do also have some Olbas oil mrsjay, isn't it pretty much the same idea?

It fecking stinks of menthol in the house.

for all fellow sufferers.
Sniff

It's not possible to "cure" viruses as such, due to their structure, the only thing you could take would be an anti-viral. The reason colds are so successful is that they mutate very often and they don't kill their host. It would be near impossible to develop an anti-viral that could cover every mutation and anti-virals tend to be very hard on your system and slow-acting. So by the time you took enough A-V to work, you'd already have killed the cold by yourself.

Fabby, you a fan of conspiracy theories then? If there was a cure for the cold, whoever developed it would make an unimaginably large amount of money.

I don't want to be eaten by a virus!!!!

Sorry hon, I'm afraid YABU for all the reasons cailindana stated! Viruses be clever...

You have my sympathy though, leaking snot all over the place is crap :(

RVF400 You can take some paracetamol, add to hot water with sugar and lemon - dada!

Must inform DH that MN is in fact highly educational and therefore a good use of my time . Thank you CailinDana.

If you have a fear of alien type things, don't ever read about how viruses work, it is bloody scary shit!

Because the virus mutates so often and quickly as soon as a 'cure' was made it would be redundant.

There is a cure, but the drugs companies are paying the scientists to keep it a secret.

What others said about mutating so quickly.

Even flu vaccines are guesses as to how season viruses will vary and they don't fully protect.

Same problem with HIV, except there is a lot of money (cost effective - snotty nose vs dying) spent on antiviral drugs and these only hold the virus.

Yes, I hate viruses too.

This thread has just reminded me of something my Mum did when I was a teenager. Mum had been a senior staff nurse in her time - and came from a medical family.

Anyway, she said she'd found out about some research facility (I think in Wiltshire) which was researching 'colds'. So, off she went for a week or so, with the dog (she was allowed to take the dog for some reason) whilst Dad and I fended for ourselves, which we were perfectly capable of doing.

Looking back on it, it was all a bit weird.

it wasn't Porton Down was it Ola? They did all kinds of scary research there years back. I'm assuming your mum came back OK

I heard about an experiment like that, where they got people in a house to investigate how colds were transmitted.
But, unless you are in your 60s or more that was before your time.

This, I think:
www.britishpathe.com/video/colds-to-order

Nurses is a "tag".

And relevant paper. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2425374/?page=1

Or did your mother go to Porton Down?