Article from WeChat public account:Translated (ID:yeeyancom), the original author: Tomé Morrissy-Swan, Translator: do you like it, cover: Oriental IC
Earlier this month, with the help of artificial intelligence, a Frenchman named Tebo (Thibault) Once again, I can walk, which can be called a miracle brought by technology. Four years ago, he fell from a nightclub 50 feet (15.24 meters) high roof, and he could only lie on the bed. In any case, the cure for this disease is impressive.
Millions of Britons are struggling seasonally with the common cold. Once again, runny nose, sneezing, headache, sore throat and fever came back, which made us feel bad. Now that medical science is so advanced, it can help a person to walk again. Why have we not found a way to completely prevent the common cold? The common cold doesn’t look like a deadly disease, but the disease is actually much more complicated.
When we talk about the common cold, we mean some of the symptoms of a cold, not a specific cold virus. In fact, there isSeveral cold viruses can cause the common cold, and their potential harm varies. The most common is the rhinovirus, which breeds in the nose, and nearly 75% of the common cold is caused by this rhinovirus.
There are other viruses, such as RSV, adenovirus, coronavirus, and the most notorious flu virus, which is often thought to be more deadly than the common cold.
Peter Barlow (Edinburg Napier University) immunologist Peter Barlow (Peter Barlow) Professor explained that healthy adults suffer from an average of three to four common colds per year. For a child, this number rises between 8 and 12.
Because there are many kinds of common colds, immunity to one type of cold does not prevent the onset of another cold. Most cold viruses will die in a few days. Some people can hardly feel the arrival and departure of cold viruses, but some people may be more sensitive to cold viruses, and the symptoms are more serious.
Professor Barlow said that the elimination of rhinovirus is one of the main goals of current immunologists. This is understandable because it is so frequent – but it is also full of complexity. First, there are more than 160 strains of rhinovirus, and one vaccine is only for several strains, it will not protect you from other strains.
Professor Barlow and his team are trying to develop a drug for all kinds of rhinoviruses, but given the sheer number of rhinoviruses and their constant changes, this is a daunting task. Despite this, Barlow is still very optimistic. “In the past two or three years, people have had a great interest in developing cold vaccines. It is possible to create a vaccine to deal with rhinoviruses, which can cover a large number of strains of rhinoviruses. There has been a lot of work done,” said Professor Barlow.
“Another thing to remember,” Barlow said. “Antiviral resistance, like antibiotics, overuse can lead to complications. If you develop a An effective drug to kill rhinoviruses and other cold viruses, you will want to leave it to those who need it most, not to everyone. It’s hard to imagine that one day you will go to the pharmacy to buy medicine to treat the common cold, most When a healthy person has a cold, he has already started using drugs to remove the virus.”
However, the flu is another matter. Although the symptoms it brings to people may be mild, the consequences are often more intense, and in the severe years of the flu, it can kill millions of people, as happened between 1918 and 1920. At that time, there were 100 million deaths in the world, far more than the death toll from a war.
We now have an effective flu vaccine, and Barlow says that each of us should be vaccinated every year. The growing number of influenza viruses makes it relatively easy to predict which viruses need to be prevented. However, as a rapidly evolving virus, scientists need to develop new vaccines every year.
A common cold is painful and even fatal in some cases. Since the 1950s, scientists have been searching for solutions, especially against rhinoviruses, which, as we have seen, are difficult to deal with. Vaccination of a strain of virus would be very expensive and impractical, but scientists hope to find the same points between all strains to help eliminate them all.
“This is an exciting time.” Barlow believes that “there is more progress now than ever before, and I am excited about the future. However, for the moment, when we are ordinary When a cold falls, we have to wait and see, relying on paracetamol, ibuprofen and other methods to relieve symptoms.”
Original title: Why haven’t we cured the common cold?
Original Address: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/havent-cured-common-cold/
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Article from WeChat public account:Translated (ID:yeeyancom) , the original author: Tomé Morrissy-Swan, Translator: do you like it