Cold cure nothing to sniff at

IT’S the annoying disease that regularly plagues even the healthiest of us. But a scientific breakthrough has finally provided hope of a cure for the common cold.

Scientists have discovered a hidden genetic code in the way the cold virus may be packaged and researchers say a treatment could be available in a decade.

There is as yet no cure for the common cold, with medicines and throat sweets only able to ease the symptoms. But scientists at the universities of York, Leeds and Helsinki believe they can now disrupt how the virus replicates.

The parechovirus – which causes flu and polio – is within the same family as those that cause colds, and scientist hope the cold virus will have the same ‘ Enigma code’.

It could lead to a preventive drug to stop people catching a cold, or to make the illness last a shorter time.

Lead author Professor Reidun Twarock, of York University, said: “We are excited to make this crucial step forward.

“This is like an ‘ Enigma code’ for human parechovirus that will set us on the path to unravelling a similar hidden code in the common cold.”