Björn Sigurdsson

Björn Sigurdsson, Dr. med., (1913 -1959) was the founder and first director of the Institute for Experimental Pathology at Keldur, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. He introduced the concept of slow viral infections (lentiviruses), that is, viruses that have a slow progression to disease after primary infection. While working with the contagious sheep diseases, maedi and visna, he and his collaborators were the first to grow a lentivirus in vitro.

Sigurdsson studied and wrote about the outbreak of Akureyri disease, the name given to a disease epidemic simulating poliomyelitis. In a study of Icelandic children vaccinated against polio in 1956, Sigurdsson, et. al found significant differences in antibody response to vaccination depending on where the children lived. Children in Egilsstadir had only a slight antibody rise to type 2 and type 3 poliovirus, while children in Thorshofn, which had recently had an outbreak of epidemic myalgic encephalomyelitis, had a much stronger antibody response response to the polio vaccine. Sigurdsson postulated that this might be explained by "the existence of basic immunity acquired through a related infection."

Notable studies

 * 1950, A disease epidemic in Iceland simulating poliomyelitis - (Abstract)


 * 1956, Clinical findings six years after outbreak of Akureyri disease - (Abstract)


 * 1958, Response to poliomyelitis vaccination

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