"War Dysentery" and the Limitations of German Military Hygiene during World War I

Bibliographic Data

ID15026348
AuthorsDerek S Linton (corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume84
Issue4
Pages607-639
Publication date2010-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the history of medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-5140 • E-ISSN: 1086-3176
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/bhm.2010.a408205
OpenAlexW4379416051
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This article examines major epidemics of bacillary dysentery in the German army as well as among civilians in eastern Europe and in Germany during World War I. These epidemics were all the more surprising in light of prewar advances in understanding the disease and limiting dysentery outbreaks. Three major reasons are adduced for the incapacity of German military hygienists to prevent wartime epidemics. First was the difficulty of bacteriological testing at the front, especially early in the war, with negative consequences for diagnosis, therapy, and disease control. Second was inadequate hygiene including major shortcomings in latrine cleanliness and attempts to grapple with the "fly plague." Third was the lack of a Pasteur-type vaccine until late in the war. Susceptibility to dysentery was also heightened by war-related nutritional deficiencies. Taking off from an article by the English medical historian Roger Cooter, this article shows that the concept of "war dysentery" was socially constructed and served a variety of professional interests but at the same time takes issue with Cooter's arguments against linking "war" and "epidemics" pathogenetically

Ancient history · Bacillary dysentery · Bacillus anthracis · Biological warfare · Biology · Dysentery · First world war · German · Limiting · Outbreak · Pathology · Plague (disease) · Political science · Preparedness · World War II · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Medicine · Virology

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