The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

August, 1951The Health Bulletinpartment. It planned for the developmentof strong postwar civil healthprograms in Germany and Japan andassisted in selecting much of the keyitpersonnel to work in these areas.The Control Of DiseaseIn World War IIThe filth-borne gastrointestinal diseases,which include the typhoid fevers,the dysenteries and diarrheas, andcholera, have long been the scourge ofarmies operating in the field. DuringWorld War II, however, none of thesediseases were important except thediarrheas and dysenteries which didcause much temporary illness in certainlocations overseas.The wartime prevalence ofthe acuterespiratory diseases, including influenzaand pneumonia, was higher than duringthe peacetime years from 1930 to 1940,but lower than the rates for World WarI. The mortality from these diseaseswas greatly reduced, undoubtedly becauseof the widespread use of thesulfonamides and, later, penicillin.jAll our previous wars have been accompaniedby a great increase in venerealdisease among troops and in thecivil population. Venereal diseases haveplagued armies since the beginning oftime and have disabled American troopssince the battle of Bunker Hill. Thewartime program for the control ofvenereal diseases was comparatively effectivein this covmtry and in certainlocations abroad. Compared with previouswars, there was a definite reductionin these diseases, but they are byno means under adequate control andthey will constitute an important, unsolvedproblem for the future.The tropical diseases were another importanthazard because so much of thefighting was done in the Tropics. Thishad been anticipated by the SurgeonGeneral, and for years military medicalofficers had been urging that morestudies be made to discover better agentswith which to protect troops in thefield against tropical diseases. In additionto the insecticides previously mentioned,researches were directed at thediscovery of an effective prophylacticdrug for field use against malaria. Millionsof dollars were spent in the searchfor new compounds which could be givento the soldier in the field to kill malarialsporozoites at the time of their injectionby the bite of the mosquito. Althoughthe ideal prophylactic has notyet been found, this research programproved to us that quinacrine, when properlyused, will prevent falciparum butwill only suppress vivax malaria. Moreimportant, it led to the discovery of anumber of new antimalarial drugs. Someof these are highly effective for treatmentin the clinical case and others, forexample chloroquine, are more usefulthan quinacrine for suppression.Although malaria was well controlledin this covmtry, it was an importantcause of illness in certain overseas locations,especially in the early part of thewar. There were almost 500,000 admissionsto hospitals during the war, andthe rate was 18.9 per thousand perannum. These figures included manyadmissions for relapses. They do notgive a true picture of the number ofmen infected as many cases were suppressedor cured by the routine use ofquinacrine. Over 80 per cent of these*patients with clinical malaria were admittedto hospitals overseas. Thosetreated in this covmtry were largely relapsesfrom infections contracted abroad.In general, the treatment was excellentand the death rate was not significant.There were many other importanttropical disease, including dengue, filariasisand schistosomiasis, but none ofthese was important as malaria. Thetropical skin diseases were a seriousproblem in many places; this problem isstill unsolved. There were various otherdisease problems, some of which stillneed attention, such as infectioushepatitis, the neurotropic virus infections,and trench foot. Considered as awhole, however, the health of the Armyin World War II was much better thanduring any previous war. There were nogreat epidemics and many of the formerplagues of war were completely controlled.In brief, the results .show thatwithin half a century military preventivemedicine had advanced to the point