Collection: Rhinovirus

Different types of respiratory virus can cause the common cold but the Rhinovirus is by far the most common. In fact, Rhinoviruses are responsible for about 35% of all colds, with each adult experiencing an average of 2-3 colds each year around the world! Rhinoviruses can survive for up to 48 hours on surfaces and an individual cold virus can have 16 million offspring within a day.

The Rhinovirus is a single-stranded RNA virus from the Picornaviridae family. There are three species (A, B and C) resulting in around 160 types of human rhinovirus of differing serotypes. Rhinovirus is one of the smallest viruses with a diameter of around 20-30 nanometres. They have four proteins, VP1, VP2, VP3, and VP4, creating the interesting viral capsid structure that encases the RNA genome.