Mission information – ASTP005 – Launch date: 07/15/1975 – Landing date: 07/24/1975 – Duration 9 days, 7.5 hours
Disease occurrence was low in early spaceflight. Gemini and Mercury missions were low risk because of their short duration, although there was restricted access to crew living quarters to reduce potential exposure.
Apollo missions increased in length, thus they induced greater health risks. Clinical illnesses arose during Apollo 9 and 13, leading to the implementation of preflight health stabilization program. Success of FCHSP during Apollo and Skylab missions evidenced by absence of preflight inflight and post flight illnesses.
Approach:
Crew health was stabilized with use of partial isolation, medically monetization of personal contacts or prime and backup crews during 21 day prelaunch period.
Medical examination for primary contacts:
- all persons requiring contact with crew including those who worked in area where the crew was, were subject to medical examinations and surveillance in regards to presence of infectious disease
- list of potential primary contacts made available to Medical Surveillance Office 90 days prior to launch
- each person on list evaluated to be approved or not as a primary contact, only if individual was free of infectious disease
- chest x-rays and skin tests for tuberculosis administered, and serological and bacteriological evaluations done
- all primary contacts required to have immunizations for diphtheria, tetanus, polio, mumps, rubella, and rubeola
Crew contacts:
- personal contacts of flight crew limited to essential personnel during FCHSP preflight period
- individuals who obtained medical approval could then be designated primary contacts
- primary contacts who became ill were removed from list until free from illness
Medical surveillance:
- active surveillance of primary work areas attended by a nurse or physician
- each primary contact required to undergo examination before entering primary area, examination included minimum of throat exam and temperature check
- more thorough examination performed if any abnormalities were detected
- food handlers and custodial staff underwent more complete examinations 21, 14 and 7 days prior to launch
- examinations included throat exam, temperature check, WBC count, CPR test, rapid plasma reagin tests urinalysis, and throat and stool cultures for pathogenic microorganisms
- primary contacts required to report any illnesses or exposures to Medical Surveillance Office, which included the following:
- illness occurrence by type, number, date
- illness exposure occurrence by type, number, date
- total number of primary contacts
- data from examinations done at primary areas
- record of crew exposures, if any, by type of illness exposure, time and date, and epidemiological history of person’s illness
Areas of crew contact:
- preflight crew activities limited to primary areas
- access to primary ares during crew occupancy or 2 hours prior to crew presence strictly limited to properly badged and primary contacts
- primary contacts wore surgical masks at all times when pithing 2 meters fo crew
- crew isolated from non-primary personnel at all times
- in case of emergency/unforeseen essential operations, limited access granted to non-primary personnel who wore highly efficient biological filtering masks during access period
Results:
- FCHSP was successfully completed, no occurrences of infectious illnesses in crew members during period of program
- surveillance of primary contacts commenced June 2, 1975 through July 24, 1957 (53 days)
- total of 381 primary contacts under surveillance
- rate of illnesses reported by primary contacts, 12.4 illnesses per 1000 persons per week
- rate of contacts to illnesses, 3 per 1000 persons per week
Source: Ferguson , J. K. (2004, July 15). Flight Crew Health Stabilization Program (ASTP005). NASA Life Sciences Data Archive . https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/405.