§ Mr. Doddsasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, the nature of the experiments being carried out to prevent the common cold; and what progress has been made.
§ Mr. BevinsThe work of the Common Cold Research Unit at Salisbury has the general aim of identifying the cause of the infection, as a preliminary to developing vaccine for its prevention. At present they are trying to find how the virus can be consistently grown and studied outside the body, but as I informed the hon. Member on 25th January, he must not expect immediate results.
The Medical Research Council is also interested in preventing the spread of the common cold by improving air hygiene by disinfection and ventilation. Experiments have shown that disinfection of air in schools by ultra-violet light reduced the bacterial content of the air, but, unfortunately, it was also found that the minor infections among the children in these schools were not less than among children at other schools. Trials involving the use of hexylresorcinol also gave a negative answer. Other trials are now in progress.