Editing Common cold (section)

==History==
[[File:The Cost Of The Common Cold & Influenza.jpg|upright|thumb|A British poster from [[World War II]] describing the cost of the common cold<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cost of the Common Cold and Influenza |website=Imperial War Museum: Posters of Conflict |publisher=vads |url=http://vads.bath.ac.uk/flarge.php?uid=33443&sos=0 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727091037/http://vads.bath.ac.uk/flarge.php?uid=33443&sos=0 |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref>]]

While the cause of the common cold was identified in the 1950s, the disease appears to have been with humanity since its early history.<ref name="Eccles p. 3"/><!-- Quote=[in reference to pre and early history] Despite our lack of specific knowledge, we can be relatively sure that colds existed at that time --> Its symptoms and treatment are described in the Egyptian [[Ebers papyrus]], the oldest existing medical text, written before the 16th century BCE.<ref>Eccles p. 6</ref> The name "cold" came into use in the 16th century, due to the similarity between its symptoms and those of exposure to cold weather.<ref>{{cite dictionary |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cold |title=Cold |access-date=12 January 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024173928/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cold |archive-date=24 October 2007}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, the [[Common Cold Unit]] (CCU) was set up by the [[Medical Research Council (UK)|Medical Research Council]] in 1946 and it was where the rhinovirus was discovered in 1956.<ref>Eccles p. 20</ref> In the 1970s, the CCU demonstrated that treatment with [[interferon]] during the incubation phase of rhinovirus infection protects somewhat against the disease,<ref name="pmid2438740">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tyrrell DA |title=Interferons and their clinical value |journal=Reviews of Infectious Diseases |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=243–9 |year=1987 |pmid=2438740 |doi=10.1093/clinids/9.2.243}}</ref> but no practical treatment could be developed. The unit was closed in 1989, two years after it completed research of [[Zinc gluconate#Zinc gluconate and the common cold|zinc gluconate lozenges]] in the prevention and treatment of rhinovirus colds, the only successful treatment in the history of the unit.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Al-Nakib W, Higgins PG, Barrow I, Batstone G, Tyrrell DA |title=Prophylaxis and treatment of rhinovirus colds with zinc gluconate lozenges |journal=The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=893–901 |date=December 1987 |pmid=3440773 |pmc=7110079 |doi=10.1093/jac/20.6.893}}</ref>