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cold. Included among sensitive pathogens not having an animal 

 reservoir are the gonococcus, pneumococcus, and many respiratory 

 viruses. Trichinella and echinococcus typify parasites having an 

 intermediate host, as does rabies, an importantdisease in the arctic 

 setting. 



Dr. Reinhard will have considerable to say about the survival of 

 viruses, but as examples of nonviral agents resistant to environ- 

 mental stress, we usually think of spore- formers or encysted proto- 

 zoa. Among the spore- formers, Clostridium botu li num, type E, 

 presents an important health problem for Eskimos living along the 

 Bering Sea and northern Labrador, Spores deposited in ocean silt 

 may contaminate marine mammals and subsequently propagate in 

 improperly stored meat, such as seal flippers. Between 1945 and 

 1960, 44 human cases and 23 deaths were reported (Dolman, 1960). 

 However, studies have shown a rapid die- off of cysts of End amoeba 

 histolytica at temperatures below freezing (Chang, 19 54), Although 

 we don't usually regard enteric bacteria as particularly hardy or- 

 ganisms, investigators from the U, S, Army Environmental Health 

 Laboratory conducted some interesting experiments in Fort Church- 

 ill, Canada, using fecal samples seeded with S. typhi , S, paratyphi B, 

 and Sh. sonnei (Human Wastes, 19 54), These were placed at tundra 

 sites, and recultured periodically from December to July. Sh. sonnei 

 could not be recovered after 17 days, but S. typhi was grown out after 

 45 days and S. paratyphi B after 135 days. The recovery period for 

 these salmonella organisms was even longer in feces from carriers. 

 They had survived, but not multiplied. 



It might be appropriate here to mention modes of transmission 

 under arctic conditions. Summed up briefly, it appears that short 

 chain, person- to- person dissemination is more important than 

 complex, vulnerable spread involving vehicles, vectors, or extra- 

 human reservoirs. Certainly the latter exists, as exemplified by 

 prevalent diseases such as rabies, trichinosis (Thorborg, 1948; 

 Connell, 1948; Bradly, 19 50),echinococcosis(Rausch, 19 54),diphylo- 

 bothriasis, and tularemia (Philip, 1962). However, where bacterial 

 intestinal infections would commonly be transmitted through food 

 and water in other parts of the world, these illnesses in the Arctic 

 present an epidemiologic picture much more consistant with con- 

 tact spread (Gordon, 19 59; Fournelle, 1959; Gordon, 1961). The same 



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