Common Cold Unit

The Common Cold Unit (CCU) or Common Cold Research Unit (CCRU) was a unit of the British Medical Research Council (MRC). The Unit undertook laboratory and epidemiological research on the common cold between 1946 and 1989 and produced 1,006 papers. The unit studied aetiology, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of common colds. It was based on Harvard Hospital located at Harnham Down near Salisbury in England, previously an infectious diseases and then military hospital brought by the US to England in the beginning of the Second World War.

Common colds account for a majority of all acute respiratory infections, and the economic costs are substantial in terms of sick leave. The public-facing side of the CCU involved continually recruiting human volunteers, by advertising. Volunteers were housed at the hospital, typically for ten days while participating in common cold trials. Some degree of isolation from each other was enforced as well as restrictions on leaving the site.

Human coronaviruses, which are responsible for about 10% of common colds, were first isolated from volunteers at the unit in 1965. The unit closed in 1990, and the area was later redeveloped and absorbed into the city of Salisbury, although there is a memorial plaque at the site referring to its former use as the Harvard Hospital.