The Role of the Military Research Unit in Determining the Etiology, Epidemiology, and Control of Acute Viral Respiratory Diseases

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Abstract
The military research unit can play an important, although supplemental, role in determining the etiologic and thus diagnostic significance of the isolation or serologic evidence, or both, of infection and newly discovered respiratory viruses. Incrimination requires that sound epidemiologic data, often both cross-sectional and longitudinal in nature, be correlated with clinical and laboratory evidence, including well controlled protection data. Huebner''s "Bill of Rights" serves as an excellent framework within which to make such studies. In this paper examples are given to indicate the importance of the epidemiologic approach and the varying degrees of success attained for incriminating the adenoviruses, para-influenzas, chimpanzee coryza agent (CCA), and 2060 viruses as causes of disease among recruits. The relative ease of making epidemiologic observations in military personnel, the feasibility of establishing well matched controls, especially for protection studies, and the high incidence of respiratory illness in recruits are principal factors that make it possible for the military research unit to make major contributions regarding the etiologic role and diagnostic significance of the newly discovered respiratory viruses in adult disease.