COMMON COLD VIRUS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28747, 19 November 1958, Page 6

COMMON COLD VIRUS

Experiments In j Antarctic (New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH. Nov. 18. When the ice-breakcr. U.S.S. Staten Island, now visiting New Plymouth, arrives in the Antarctic later this month one man on! board will be hoping for the I worst to happen—an outbreak of! colds. He is Dr. Rainer Goldsmith, aj physiologist from the Medical Re-1 search Council, London, who will; attempt to solve a problem that; has baffled scientists: What is the! virus that is the carrier of the; common cold? Dr Goldsmith’s work in the; Antarctic, financed by the United.! States National Academy of! Science, has been called “Opera-: tion snuffles”. He is no stranger to Antarctic waters, having been there with Dr. Vivian Fuchs during the transAntarctic expedition. The Staten Island is particularly suitable for lhe experiments! Dr. Goldsmith will conduct in the' Antarctic as the men on board j will make contact with service-1 men at Wilkes Station, on the! Knox Coast, who are "cold-free": and virus-free. Dr. Goldsmith has 50 "guinea pigs” on board the ice-breaker to help him with his experiment. They are enlisted seamen drawn, [from a good cross-section of the; |ship. In his special laboratory orL [board he takes regular blood; [samples and swabs of the "guinea; pigs.” I Once one of the men in the insii[latcd Wilkes Station contracts a> I cold after the arrival of the icebreaker, Dr. Goldsmith will im-j niediately be able to find out what (virus has caused the cold—a fact that scientists have not yet been able to discover. "Before we can find a cure f a ; the common cold we must find out I what virus has caused it.” he said. 1 i Dr. Goldsmith will be joined in : the Antarctic by Dr. William' (Sladen, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, who also had previous experience in the Antarctic with the British expedition ‘