system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are common viral infections so difficult to treat?

Influenza, Common Cold, etc. With modern medicine, why are they so difficult to cure and/or treat?
gpt
Bacteria are alive, you can kill them.

Viruses are not alive - they're little more than floating strands of DNA.  Anything you do to destroy them will negatively affect all the other DNA in your body.