Cold comfort.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The common cold is a long-standing symbol of humanity's inability to control life's annoyances. They can land a man on the moon, we complain, but they can't cure a cold. You can take medicine for a cold and get better in seven days, doctors tell us, or you can skip the remedies and get over it in a week.

That may change if the Food and Drug Administration approves a new drug developed by ViroPharma Inc. of Exton, Pa. The drug, called pleconaril, isn't a cure, but it helps people get over colds faster and reduces the severity of symptoms. It works by attacking a class of viruses that includes the rhinovirus, which causes about half of all colds.

Clearly, pleconaril's promise is limited: It's not a cure, it provides only partial relief and it won't help with all cold viruses.

Still, in clinical tests pleconaril made a significant difference in the course of a run-of-the-mill cold. Test subjects reported feeling better the day after taking the drug, and were free of symptoms a day earlier than people who were given placebos. While pleconaril offers something short of a miracle, it does appear to offer the first effective treatment for a malady that strikes Americans an estimated 100 million times a year.

Doctors' lives will also change if the drug becomes generally available. More people seek medical treatment for colds than for any other disease, but there's not much doctors can do for them. Some doctors will prescribe antibiotics, either because patients demand them or because there's a risk that a patient weakened by a cold will become vulnerable to a bacterial infection. Pleconaril would relieve doctors of their near-helplessness, and could reduce the over-prescribing of antibiotics that has contributed to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.

The common cold is the most frequent cause of absences from work and school. Pleconaril has the potential to reduce the number and duration of those absences. A subtle shift could accompany the arrival of an effective cold medicine: Cold sufferers now have a widely accepted excuse for resting at home - not only is that the only treatment available, it also reduces the spread of contagion to coworkers or classmates. With pleconaril, cold sufferers can expect less sympathy, and might even come to be suspected of malingering.

If pleconaril reduces cold sufferers' misery, the researchers at ViroPharma will deserve the fortunes that will come their way. But a cold brings a kind of misery that everyone understands, and is powerless against. With the runny nose and sore throat come permission to sleep late, to summon a parent or spouse by ringing a bell on the bedside table, to watch daytime television while sipping chicken soup. Too bad researchers can't find a way to cure the cold while keeping the comforts that come with it.