Is This A Common Cold

Why is there no vaccine for the common cold?

One of the main reason is that the virus which causes common cold changes its genetic composition such that the antigens against which our body “reacts ” changes at regular intervals, so frequent that if we prepare a vaccine against present antigens of common cold virus , by the time we develop immunity against it , the virus changes its antigenic properties such that it evades the immunity which we had prepared for impending infection of common cold. You must be knowing that the infection prevails in the community with the seasonal variation. In case of H1N1 though the mutation occurs regularly but they are not so frequent as common cold virus , same applies to polio . It's an irony that we are able to create vaccines against the deadly viruses ( small pox ) but can't prepare one for common cold.

Why can't science cure the common cold?

For starters, there are over 200 different viruses that have been implicated in causing the "common cold." It isn't a single disease and therefore each case can be different and would require different treatments. The most common culprit of the common cold is a group of viruses called Rhinoviruses. These in themselves all vary from one to another and all cause similar symptoms. So essentially, asking science to cure the "common cold" is equivalent to asking science to cure "viruses." On the topic of viruses, they are notoriously difficult to cure. This is partly thanks to their myriad method of infection and partly thanks to their use of your own cells to replicate and thrive There are relatively few diseases caused by viruses that have antivirals. Tamiflu, a relatively well known antiviral used to treat Influenza, doesn't actually cure the disease but just shortens the duration of the disease. The best way to kill a virus is to just let your immune system do its job. In fact 90% of the time you go to the doctor for a cold, if it is caused by a virus the doctor will simply give you drugs to treat the symptoms while your immune system runs it's course. The last thing to note is that if by cure, you mean eliminate it from the population, then you should know that there has only ever been 1 disease eliminated by treatment (aka science) and that is smallpox. Polio is getting close, but it is a very difficult goal and would require another Quora topic entirely to get into the answer. Both of these disease have been attacked through the use of vaccinations that are very specific to the strains of virus that cause the diseases. If we were to attempt this with the common cold, we would need a vaccine that protects against over 200 virus strain, which is impossible with today's techniques (the most viruses protected against in one vaccine at the moment is 6). It is unlikely that the "common cold" will ever be cured for the reasons listed above, as well as the fact that it is not really a high priority seeing as how it has a very low mortality rate. It is essentially just a nuisance disease, and research funding for that kind of disease is rather limited. Hope this helps.