A STUDY OF THE NATURE AND CONTROL OF AIR-BORNE INFECTION IN ARMY CAMPS

The study of air-borne infection is of relatively recent origin. Several circumstances in particular have accelerated investigation in this field during the past two to three years, namely the development of more efficient and quantitative methods for recovering bacteria from the air, progress in methods of aerial disinfection and the war. The fact that between one third and one half of all illness in army camps is caused by diseases of the respiratory tract coupled with the lack of any effective measures for reducing the incidence of such diseases indicated the urgency of intensive study of this problem in the Army. Before the war began, a number of special commissions were set up under the Board for the Investigation and Control of Influenza and Other Epidemic Diseases, Preventive Medicine Service, Office of the Surgeon General, U. S. Army. Certain of these commissions were assigned to study different specific diseases of