IS A COLD CONTAGIOUS ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1934, Page 3

IS A COLD CONTAGIOUS ?

RESEARCH IN U.S.A. . Medical science took the stage at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting at the University of California and produced news startling, encouraging, and ominous, says the ‘San Francisco Chronicle.’ Startling was the theory announced by Drs. William J. Kerr and J. S. Lagen, of the University of California Medical School, that the common cold is not a contagious disease, and that it .is not caused by any living organism. Researches carried out by the University of California workers indicated that colds were not transmitted to men known to be “cold addicts” when they were kept in close contact with a sufferer, or even, when nasal discharges from such patients were injected into the conjunctival sac of the eye or placed in the mouth and throat. It was merely necessary to keep them warm and comfortable. Kerr and Lagen suggested that the common cold results—when...tlie__bodyfails to accommodate itself- suitably to the environment, particularly to cold temperatures. This' failure, augmented by fatigue, exertion, or other temporary set backs, may result in colds, and in laryngitis and pharyngitis, neither of which has any. kno'wnßbacteridl cause. .... / Ollier reasons have led workers to

suspect that colds have no living cause. Notable among these are the periodic frequency of colds, the apparent lack of anything but a very slight and temporary immunity, the particular course of the symptoms, and the failure to find any organism that can, be blamed. Encouraging was the report by Drs. A. P. Krueger and J. J. Miller, also of the University of California, who described a new'and rapid technique for the diagnosis of whooping cough. A fraction “df a cubic centimetre of the new “pertussis endoantigen,” perfected largely in Dr. Kruger’s laboratory,’ when injected under the skin will produce a red swelling if the patient is infected. This new method has proved its superiority to the old method Of looking for the organisms in the blood Or sputum on a special bacterial culture plate. The new method, based on sensitisation to the proteins of the whooping cough bacteria, gives an answer in 24 hours. Other work reported~ih' this field included a final -dectsioiT'fHSF hemophilus pertussis, suspectefl Llof .many-years,-is "Hie 7 cause of the disease.’ •••’ . ’?/’