§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress has been made towards a cure for the common cold.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsThe Common Cold Research Union (which is administered jointly by the Medical Research Council and the Ministry of Health) has until recently been primarily concerned with identifying the viruses that cause the common cold, with a view to developing an effective vaccine. However, since this and other work has revealed over 100 such viruses it seems unlikely that a vaccine could be produced that would be effective against all of them.
The Unit's main interest is now centred on substances known to prevent the viruses from multiplying under laboratory conditions and which may help in the prevention and treatment of colds and related infections in man. Preliminary results have been encouraging, but this work is still at a very early stage.