Respiratory virus disease in the Antarctic: Immunological studies

This chapter discusses the reports that men who had returned from 1.5 to 2 years isolation in Antarctica and had suffered severely from acute respiratory infections. It was surmised that this might be because of increased sensitivity to one of the common families of respiratory viruses. Two lines of study were therefore followed. In the first, men were examined at intervals throughout their stay in Antarctica at Stonington Island, and their titers of specific antibody against a wide range of respiratory viruses were measured throughout the isolation period. The second line of study consisted of three clinical trials in which a dose of a known respiratory virus was given to a number of subjects. The clinical and serological responses and the spread of the organism within the community were observed. The results of these investigations were compared with those of similar trials in England carried out at the Common Cold Unit at Salisbury. The results of the study suggested that it is possible to introduce a virus into a closed community, and under primitive conditions, to record its spread and the symptoms it causes.