Why don't we use anti-virals for the common cold?

Question

There are plenty of anti-virals on the market, and plenty of strains of cold viruses. We use anti-virals for lots of other viral infections, but not the common cold. Is it that we risk the development of resistance?

Answer 1

there is no cure for the common cold , only remedies that will relieve your symptoms....

if it was that easy to cure viral infections there would be a cure for aids/hiv by now ....

Answer 2

Nobody knows what the common cold is exactly, and most anti-virals are targeted to treat a specific virus. Every year flu vaccines are changed to treat the most peoplar strains of the virus, but u can't pinpoint the exact virus in a cold. There are thousands and medical research is more worried about viruses like aids than the commom cold.

Answer 3

The cure is worse than the disease. Cold will cure itself. The anti virals all have bad side effects. All the Anti virals are expensive too and no insurance company will pay for Anti-virals on a cold.

Answer 4

There are two points here. Firstly there are about two hundred strains of the Cold Virus, so trying to target it with an anti-viral would be very difficult.
Secondly, the pharmaceutical companies make so much money from selling Cold relief products that they don't want to produce a cure for it.

Answer 5

Common cold is cause by a variety of viruses but their actions are self-limiting, meaning it can be resolved on its own. So why take the risk of using anti virals that may cause development of resistance? Besides, most antivirals are expensive.

Answer 6

Yes a cold is a virus. They are self limited and not worth risking the side effects of antiviral meds. They also mutate frequently. I don't think that resistance is a concern given that your body will clear the virus anyway. Good question.

Answer 7

I think because anti-virals are virus specific and can't kill a cold because the cold virus has thousands and thousands of different mutations.

Answer 8

It won't necessarily TREAT your cold, but antihistamines are typically used to dry out your runny nose. Some medicines, that contain antihistamines, could also have other ingredients that will help stop other symptoms, but that depends on the medicine. So basically, benadryl will probably only help your runny nose. Try going to a drug store to find a medicine that will help all your symptoms.

Answer 9

for common colds u only need to treat the symptoms, e.g, runny nose, cough etc.
there is no need for anti virals as colds are pretty much self limiting.

Answer 10

er, duh, yes, a cold is a virus...

It is most probably the development of resistance. We've already seen it happen with antibiotics. Colds just aren't really serious enough to merit such medicine.