The St Kilda boat cough under the microscope.
The inhabitants of St Kilda, a remote archipelago in the Outer Hebrides, suffered from outbreaks of a respiratory tract infection known as the boat cough every time strangers visited their isolated community between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. This condition has always been labelled influenza, but a review of contemporary records and modern microbiological evidence strongly suggests the illness was due to rhinovirus.
Stride
P
P
Redcliffe Hospital, Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. peter_stride@health.qld.gov.au
D003139:Common Cold / Q000266:history; D003371:Cough / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history* / Q000382:microbiology; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000266:history; D012229:Rhinovirus; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology