200 
Sorbonne, Paris, France; 
Prof. Jean Guiart Sociologist/Anthropologist 
Three additional positions will be filled by local Public Health Service 
personnel from the New Hebrides Condominium Health Service and the British 
Solomon Islands Protectorate. 
Area of Operation: All members will embark from their home laboratories by 
commercial air transport to Port Vila, New Hebrides. They will board the 
Alpha Helix in Port Vila and proceed to operate in the New Hebrides and the 
British Solomon Islands Protectorate, visiting Renell and Bellona Islands, 
Vanikoro, Tikopla, Cherry (Anuta), Ureparapara, Loh, Tegua, Hiu, the Torres 
Islands group, Vanualava, Motalava, Merig, Merelava and Ponape. All 
members will disembark at Ponape and return by commercial air transport to 
their home laboratories. Permission to operate in the areas referred above 
is being handled by LCDR Mike Fleming, Office of Special Assistant for 
Fisheries and Wildlife, Undersecretary, Department of State, and is being 
coordinated by Mr. R.B. Haines, Scripps Institute Staff Officer. 
Most equipment is being provided by the already equipped Alpha Helix , which 
has been supplemented by stores maintained by the Scripps Institute. 
Specific equipment and supplies needed by the NINDS team has been collated 
here at NIH, but must be shipped immediately to Hawaii to assure delivery 
before July 23, 1972, the date when the Alpha Helix will commence to load 
supplies. 
Proposed Scope of Study ; 
General: This study basically provides for the opportunity to conduct 
follow-up studies, most of which were initiated by Dr. Gajdusek over a 
decade ago, and which have been unqualif iably supported through the years 
by NINDS as on-going program studies on the health, physical development, 
patterns of child growth and disease patterns, particularly involving the 
nervous system, and medical/anthropological data of semi-isolated cultures. 
Population surveys of a wide range of genetic polymorphisms , 
dermatoglyphics and anthropomorphic measurements will be conducted. 
Specimens will be collected for continued viral and seroepidemiological 
studies, including attempts to isolate, characterize and develop methods of 
control of viruses and other infectious and contagious pathogens affecting 
the health status of these populations. In vitro cell lines of human skin, 
obtained by skin biopsy, will be established and preserved in liquid 
nitrogen which, upon return to the NIH, will be used to study 
polymorphisms, as well as for the study of latent, persistent and chronic 
viruses. 
Specific : 
Medical Studies: As part of the survey of the health of islanders 
studied, as many children and adults as possible will receive complete 
physical examinations. A shipboard x-ray machine, provided from the 
Solomon Islands "A” Expedition , will be used to estimate bone age in 
children, which in turn will be correlated with anthropometric and 
physiologic estimates of maturation, including height, weight, length, head 
circumference, pulse, blood pressure, nervous system development, and 
nutritional status, etc. 
