ENTEROVIRUSES IN ALASKA 



relation to virus ecology. The arctic resident is not a hypothermic 

 individual. Man lives successfully in the Arctic only because he 

 maintains a subtropical micro- climate within his clothing and a 

 temperate climate within his house. The previous speakers have 

 emphasized the fact that the effects of cold environments are in- 

 direct; that is, they have a bearing on hygiene, sanitation, social, 

 and individual activity patterns which affect the passage of viruses 

 from host to host. I do not wish to minimize the message of the 

 later discussions of effects of hypothermia on infection. These ex- 

 periments are important medically from the therapeutic standpoint, 

 and may also lead to basic information on the metabolic and physio- 

 logical aspects of cellular and systemic resistance to infection; but 

 their relation to the natural history of humandisease in arctic areas 

 is difficult to discern. Exceptions to this statement may be furnished 

 by the occasional excessive exposure of people to cold by accident 

 or improvidence, or by the excessive exposure of the upper res- 

 piratory tract to very cold air from extreme arctic conditions or 

 overexertion. 



The cold climates operate in two, apparently paradoxical manners 

 on the ecology of the human hosts for viruses. First of all, the 

 aboriginal population has been forced to settle indiscrete, relatively 

 small, often widely- separated groups, or, in the past, to live a 

 migratory life to exploit the ecology of the basic food animals. Only 

 in certain areas, such as the fish-rich river- valleys of the past, 

 did boreal population groups cluster closely. The bionomics of food 

 resources, therefore, led to isolated human communities, often with 

 discontinuous communication in the colder seasons. This tended to 

 reduce the speed of dissemination of acute infectious disease be- 

 tween communities. When isolation was enforced by armed guards 

 along the trail, as is reputed to have occurred in Northwestern 

 Alaska during the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic, villages could escape 

 epidemic disease. On the other hand, a cold environment causes 

 close congested living conditions within communities and families. 

 Consequently, a highly infectious epidemic disease spreads rapidly 

 through a village once it is established. 



These diverse effects of cold climates on human ecology and com- 

 munication led to another paradox; i.e., the season in which arctic 

 villagers were more subject to inclementweather was also the time 



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