The Big Bang Story

2011-06-22T22:27:00.001-07:00

Hi there!

This blog is dedicated towards explaining the symbiotic relationship between WWII and medicine. Like viewing a canvas, if you only focus on a specific part of the canvas you won't be able to make a good judgement about the overall picture unless you stand back and absorb the entire view. The same applies when we speak about WWII and medicine. To be able to appreciate the symbiotic relationship between the two you have to look at how medicine with all its aspects(social,psychological etc..) was before the war and the impact that war has had on medicine after it has ended.

Knowledge of World War II and other global turning points in history advances one's understanding of how our contemporary society developed. Mark Twain once said that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Millions of people were killed during WWII and it involved many nations, costing more money than any other war in history. Beyond all this the world witnessed humanities being crushed down to ashes.

World War II has been the major turning point for many things such as the birth of new weapons especially nuclear weaponry which gave a whole new perspective to the art of war. Medicine was also profoundly revolutionized during World War II. During this period of time the knowledge and ethics of medical practitioners and those involved in medicine had been put to test. Many new equipment, treatment and procedures were created during the war. Our ethics were compromised in the name of experiments and the mission of producing the perfect human race.

We, a bunch of International Medical university students have done tons of research and references and come up with this site with only one goal in mind, to point out what the World War II had done to the world of medicine. We couldn’t be more delighted when this theme was given to us as our selective project. We hope that this blog will somehow be useful to our guests.

We pray you would skim through our blog and by the time you leave it you would have learnt something new.

Please don't forget to complete the poll at the bottom of the page and drop us some feedback in the chatbox.

Cheers,

BigBangStory Team.

Health and medicine during the interwar period

2011-06-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Before World War 2, and during and after World War 1, a number of medical advancements were made. In World War 1, a huge number of soldiers died due to disease rather than actual combat. One of the major diseases that contributed to the widespread death of soldier troops was typhus fever or the typhus louse, also known as the ‘chat’. Other diseases that presented a problem during that time included trench fever and trench foot. Trench fever, caused by contamination with louse faeces, resulted in high fever, aches and rashes. Trench foot occurred after soldiers stood for lengthy periods of time in water filled trenches. This condition was extremely painful though not deadly. If not taken care of, gangrene resulted which called for amputation of the diseased foot. This was the main problem that resulted in great advancements in prostheses.

These diseases became a big problem due to the poor hygienic conditions during the war. Soldiers lived in trenches, around which lay dead decaying bodies and diseased rats. Also contributing to the poor hygiene was the fact that soldiers had to keep themselves warm by crowding together. The close contact and small spaces facilitated infestation. Infections such as dysentery, cholera and parasitic infections were common as well due to the poor sanitary conditions. “The intensity of World War I trench warfare meant about 10% of the fighting soldiers were killed. This compared to 5% killed during the Second Boer War and 4.5% killed during World War II” (1). During World War 2, hygiene dramatically improved and therefore resulted in less number of deaths due to infection from trenches.

Venereal diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhea, and war neurosis, now known as post traumatic stress disorder, were also an issue. World war 1 ended with a pandemic of Spanish Influenza, killing around 30 million people worldwide.

World War I saw a major improvement in the treatment of combat wounds as a result of better surgical methods and antisepsis, the use of X rays, tetanus antitoxin and blood transfusions, and the more rapid evacuation of the wounded by motorized ambulances to hospitals.

Blood transfusions were used, though blood groups were not known. Finding compatible blood was mostly done by trial and error. A major problem during transfusions was the clotting of blood. Later, in 1914, this was solved by adding citrate to the blood, and in 1917, the citrate anticoagulation method was used to save thousands of lives.

Tetanus and gas gangrene that developed on injured soldiers was treated by the use of antitoxin and antiserum injections, though the best treatment was surgically related. Antiseptics that could be used on wounds were discovered, the most important being the Carrel-Dakin treatment.

References-

(1): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare

2011-06-22T16:29:00.001-07:00

Hi there!

We pray you would skim through our blog and by the time you leave it you would have learnt something new.

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Cheers,

BigBangStory Team.

2011-06-22T15:42:00.001-07:00

Needless to say, World War 2 changed millions of lives. Due to constant bombing and gas attacks, people, especially children were evacuated from big cities and towns to smaller areas and to the countryside. This meant they had to leave their families and basically their normal lives and start afresh with new people and new surroundings. The evacuated children suffered unimaginable psychological stress.

“The impact of evacuation on children depended to an extent on which social strata you were in at the time. Parents who had access to money invariably made their own arrangements. Children at private schools based in the cities tended to move out to manor houses in the countryside where children at that school could be, in the main, kept together. But 1.9 million children gathered at rail stations in early September not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had gathered with them”. (1)

Rationing was another event that took place during the war. Food, petrol, and clothes were rationed to conserve what the people had. Coupon systems and point systems were set up to regulate what consumers could obtain. “Rationing started on January 8th 1940, when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed (by weight), followed by meat in March 1940 (by price rather than weight). In July 1940, tea, cooking fat, jam and cheese were also rationed (by weight). Eggs and milk were rationed by allocating supplies to shops in proportion to the number of customers registered there. People were permitted one egg per fortnight but this was not guaranteed, as with other foods. Rations varied considerably; the cheese ration, for example, varied from 1oz (30g) per person per week to 8oz (225g). The meat ration worked out at approximately 1lb (500 grams) per week”. (2)

One major problem that came with the rationing of food was the beginning of the black market. Items that were rationed were sold here under the radar, at a higher price. Rationing did not end till 1946 after World War 2 ended. “Life resumed as normal and the consumption of meat, butter, and sugar inevitably rose. While Americans still live with some of the results of World War II, rationing has not returned”. (3)

As in World War 1, women started working, but this time, the numbers increased much more. 6 million women took wartime jobs, or replacing men on farms. Around 3 million women signed up to work for the Red Cross as nurses and over 200,000 women served in military. “The ladies of the Women's Voluntary Services, WI, and St. John's Ambulance worked tirelessly throughout the war to help relieve the hardship suffered as a result of the bombing and shortages all over Britain. Nurses were in demand at home and abroad. Even those with children worked in the munitions factories or were assigned fire-watching or other war duties”. (4)

An increase in the health of children was seen and this lead to surveys showing that children were taller and heavier after the war. Also, due to the rationing of foods, there was an increase in the number of restaurants that were set up all around Britain. Nutrition became a more serious issue and people tended to be slimmer and have less tooth decay. Due to the rationing of petrol, more people moved around on foot and this increased the amount of exercise that was done. The possibility of bombing and gas attacks stirred much fear and worry into the lives of civilians, robbing them of sleep and causing a massive blow to the morale of people. Blackouts were carried out throughout Britain to prevent bomb attacks in large cities. These blackouts themselves caused a lot of health hazards in the forms of trips and falls. Poor ventilation, caused by covering windows, lead to more coughs and throat infections.(5)

(1): http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/children_and_world_war_two.htm

(2): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-97-world-war-2-Food-facts.html

(3): http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1674.html

(4): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-96-Life-in-world-war-2.html

(5): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-98-world-war-2-Health-facts.html

2011-06-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

(1): http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/children_and_world_war_two.htm

(2): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-97-world-war-2-Food-facts.html

(3): http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1674.html

(4): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-96-Life-in-world-war-2.html

(5): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-98-world-war-2-Health-facts.html

Introductory note

2011-06-22T02:43:00.001-07:00

Hi there!

We pray you would skim through our blog and by the time you leave it you would have learnt something new.

Please don't forget to complete the poll at the bottom of the page and drop us some feedback in the chatbox.

Cheers,

BigBangStory Team.

Psychological Aspects During WW2

2011-06-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

During world war two, psychology was used as a method to of war and also to treat the soldiers and civilians that are traumatized emotionally and mentally.

The psychological warfare was used to demoralize the opponent by feeding the pre-existing fear of the enemy. When the fear in the enemy force increases they will tend to retreat and sometimes this ends the war before it begins. The U.S. Department of Defense has defined psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as:"The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives."

Following are the some examples of use of propaganda during world war two. Adolf Hitler was one of the first to use the advancement of communication technology which was a microphone at that time to exaggerate his presence and make him look like a good. This eventually influenced the thinking of the Germans to follow him, and which it eventually led them to a destructive pathway. Sir Winston Churchill made similar use of radio for propaganda from the Allied side. Axis Sally was a famous female radio personality during world war two. She was a propagandist for the allied troop. Her most infamous broadcast was made on May 11, 1944, prior to the "D-Day" invasion of Normandy, France. She portrayed an American mother who dreamed that her son had been killed in the English Channel. An announcer's voice made the message clear: "The D of D-Day stands for doom… disaster… death… defeat… Dunkerque or Dieppe." After the war she was captured and charged with ten counts of treason and tried for eight and late she was only convicted with one. She was sentenced from 10 to 30 years and died of natural causes.

During world war two women suffered tremendous psychological effect as they were often the victim of rape. They were war rape victim which is committed by the soldiers or the civilians. Women were also forced into prostitution and sexual slavery as in the case of the Japanese soldiers. I still remember the stories told by my grandmother, in order to save themselves from being raped young women are made to look ugly by making their faces look black by putting coal on their faces. These young women andtheir families were constantly in fear for their safety and some of the rape victims were killed at the end or they killed themselves.

Holocaust victims are generally the Jews. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) states: “The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. The Nazis also targeted the Poles, Romanians, mentally ill and physically disabled people. These people were killed brutally and these event left a deep scar on the victims that until today the survivors and their family member could not erase it from their memory.

These above are some of the psychological effect experienced by the civilians and the following are the effect on the soldiers. Most of the war veterans experience post-traumaticstress disorder. This is due to the events that took place during the war. Symptoms of the disorder will be irritability anger outburst and difficulty in concentrating .They tend to re-experience the events in the form of flashbacks and nightmare. Patients that suffer from PTSD will be avoiding the events that remind them of the war. They will also start to have lack of interest in social activity and detach themselves from the society. PTSD if left untreated will lead to suicidal thoughts which are very dangerous to the victims. The more war a soldier experience the higher the risk that he is going t suffer PTSD.

In a nutshell war has tormented people emotionally and mentally. Up to today we still can see our grandparents feeling sad each time they talk about world war two. The bright side to the war is that it has brought steep development in the area of psychology. Psychology was developed in the early 19^th century and later it got boost up during world war one and world war two stands as a watershed in its development. World war two mobilized the cooperation of clinical and experiment psychology. This later have had helped in the selection of the soldiers and treating the patients who are suffering from any psychological illness.

Reference:

"Non-Jewish victims of Nazism," Encyclopedia Britannica.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Psychological_warfare

http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/0123/text/field.htm

http://www.americainwwii.com/stories/haunted.html

Social Aspects During the Interwar Period (1918-1939)

2011-06-22T02:30:00.001-07:00

During the interwar years, or ‘peacetime’, doctors and surgeons learned a lot from the problems, diseases and wounds encountered in World War 1 and diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis were better controlled. There was more knowledge and information on diet, cleanliness and sanitation, yet there was a downfall in the general health of people. For example, in Britain in the 1930s, malnutrition was due to unemployment (especially during the Great Depression) and the consumption of more processed and convenience foods. There was a deficiency in calcium and by the mid-30s, children in school were given milk packets every day, to ensure proper nourishment and this actually continued up till the 1970s.
Smoking, tooth decay and excessive slimming were social issues dealt with during the interwar years. ⁽¹⁾
During this period, women over the age of 30 gained the right to vote in 1918 and the age was lowered to 21 in 1928. It was during this period as well, women started gaining more confidence and started getting involved in politics and business
There was also an evolution in fashion. Cheaper and more affordable clothes were available for everyone by making use of cheaper materials to manufacture clothes.
Families were able to spend more time together as the working hours were cut short.

References :
(1): http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/21-106-interwar-years-Health-facts.html

Introductory note

2011-06-22T01:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

This blog is dedicated towards explaining the symbiotic relationship between WWII and medicine. Like viewing a canvas, if you only focus at a specific part of the campus you won't be able to make a good judgement about the overall picture unless you stand back and absorb the entire view, the same applies when we speak about WWII and medicine. To be able to appreciate the symbiotic relationship between the two you have to look at how medicine with all its aspects(social,psychological etc..) was before the war and the impact that war has had on medicine after it has ended.

Knowledge of World War II and other global turning points in history advances one's understanding of how our contemporary society developed. Mark Twain once said that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. World War II killed millions of people, involved many nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Beyond all this the world witnessed our humanities being crushed down to ashes.

World War II has been the major turning point for many things such as the birth of new weapons especially nuclear weaponry which gave a whole new different meaning to the art of war. Medicine also did not miss its chance to undergo profound revolution during World War II. During this period of time the knowledge and ethics of medical practitioners and those involved medicine had been put to test. Many new equipments, treatments, procedures were created during the war. Our ethics were compromised in the name of experiments and mission of producing the perfect human race.

We, a bunch of International Medical university students have done tons of research and references and come up with this site with only one goal in our mind, to point out what the World War II had done to the world of medicine. We couldn’t be more delighted when this theme was given to us as our selective project. We hope that this blog will somehow be useful to our guests.

We pray you would skim through our blog and by the time you leave it you would have learnt something new.

Please don't forget to complete the poll at the bottom of the page and drop us some feedback in the chatbox.

Cheers,

BigBangStory Team.

2011-06-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

POST WAR PYSCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS

Eventhough the war had ended , people , both the military personnel and civilians still continued to suffer from psychological effects of the war . The impact of war was felt by everyone , from the elderly to the young children. There were moments of grieves that was unavoidable among the people at that time. The well known Holocaust has left a great impact on the survivors. After the war , they tried to lead a normal life without much expectations but it was indeed a horror to them because the so called ‘after-shock’ left a footprint which was not able to be erased in their life. One of the ways to forget the shock was having the hope of reuniting with their family and loved ones . But that was not able to be accomplished as most of their loved ones have had their lives taken during the holocaust period. The worse thing a person can go through is when you actually hear HOW your family members and loved ones die. That was exactly what the civilians went through. The pain and scar that they had was indeed uncurable. Yet , some of them tried to forget the past and lead a new life in the hope that the future would be bright .Those who managed to have a family after that named their newborns after those whom had passed away due to the war. Not only that , the babies that were born were said to be a symbol of victory over the Nazis. They were seen as a hope of the future and of course , like all parents , the survivors only hopes that their children will never go through the moments of disaster that they went through before . Nevertheless , many women , during World War II, entered the labor force. They were encouraged to work in industrial factories to help the war effort. The United States government even created a propaganda campaign that women are capable of doing what were considered "men's jobs," and this allowed them to work in many industrial sector and factories. After working for a long period , these women who have realised their capabilities did not want to give these jobs up after war but instead continue with their jobs to sustain their living expenses. Many American men were not satisfied with the this change of roles and this lead them to persuade and convince them into getting back into their normal daily activities before the start of War. In the 1960s many married women were not satisfied with the burdens and the contradictions they had to face. They were being bombarded that good mothers and wives did not work and dedicated their lives to supporting their husbands and children, but at the same time they were increasingly forced to work to make ends meet.This dilemma went on for the women during that period of after war. There were also women who were not able to forget the pass especially those whom had their husbands and families killed during the war. This all lead to women being psychologically affected.

Nonetheless , the condition after war was deplorable due to the fact that jobs were difficult to find , living conditions were not as good as it was supposed to be , and there was difficulty in getting proper food and sanitations. As days pass , the life expectancy increased and standards of living improved. The children who were affected during the war were mostly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . Eventhough the adults were also affected , children suffered more as they were young and unable to analyse what was going on. According to a study that was done during that time , significantly higher incidence of PTSD in the Direct War exposure group in comparison to the No Direct War exposure group. This actually supports the basis that exposure to highly stressful war events can produce distressful psychological symptoms in children. Symptoms of PTSD which can occur in both adults and children is when the circumstances experienced is outside the range of usual human experience and that would be extremely stressful to almost anyone. The memory will keep haunting the person involved in the form of by dreams and hallucinations. One of the most common factor which would contribute to the a person having PTSD is when there is a death or injury of a family member , loved one or friends. This would lead to the increased levels of fear and behavioural problems. Military personnel on the other hand had a totally different form of dilemma. They were the ones who survived the war and also went through the situations of being in the battlefield and looking at all the people dying .The feeling of guilt of not being able to help people to survive the war always rested in their hearts. Not only that , they were also being constantly afraid of death as they have seen many including their loved ones dying right in front of their eyes. The trauma that the military people had was indeed a disastrous one. From then onwards , having to hear sounds of gunfire and bomb blast surrounding them always left them in state of fear.

Many things that have happened in the war left the life of many survivors in the state of trauma and most of them were psychologically affected. The thought of the war itself brings them shivers and hoping that the destructive event would never occur in their lives anymore. The cries and tears were not able to replace the people who have been killed during the war but they have definitely lead the survivors to become stronger and give them courage to continue their lives in a better way without the shadows of the past.

References :

Sulfanamide

2011-06-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

Sulfanilamide

“The Nazis discovered it. The allies won the war with it…..This incredible discovery was Sulpha.”

[2] Sulfanilamide affected lives of many soldiers especially allies in WWII and saved thousands more people. One of them was Winstion Churchill, who had contracted pneumonia and was rumored to be on his death bead when his physician gave him M + B 693 sulfanamide to cure him[2]). His recovery was crucial t o the country as plans were being made for D day in which Britain played a leading role. About 14000 soldiers of allied countries carried sulfa powder in pouches and were told to apply it immediately to any open wound as to prevent infection(elibrary.bigchalk.com). An incidence that proves the importance of sulfanilamide is when Meningitis outbreak occurred in the French Foreign Legion in Nigeria.When the supply of sulfonamide wass high, the mortality rate was 11%. However, upon exhaustion of the resources the rate climbed up to 75%[12]

Hence this proves that if it were not for sulfonamide in WWI, mortality rates would have been exceptionally higher.

Why did gonorrhea infections substantially increase in WWII despite Penicillin?

That’s because initially penicillin was used as prophylaxis and treatment for gonorrhea and STD’s. However, the bacteria became resistant to penicillin and people were become more promiscuous thinking that they are now “immune” from STDs due to the miracle drug which they thought would protect them from STDs. So, barrier methods were not used and hence this increased the incidence of STDs, resulting in Gonorrhea afflicting around twelve million Americans which has become a serious issue for US government (13).

By the early 1940s STDs decreased dramatically in numbers as Gerhard Domagk and his team of chemists who developed the very first sulfa drugs that were able to treat gonorrhea and other STDs. Sulfa drus preceded penicillin as they first were manufactured in 1932 and carried the “main therapeutic burdern in both military and civilian medicine during the war” (elibrary.bigchalk.com). Sulfa drugs not only helped treat bacterial infections but they contributed greatly to other non bacterial infections.

Sulfa and AIDS today!

The breakthrough in sulfa drugs in the research conducted in 1930 is the door to potential discovery of effective AIDS treatlemt making it a revolutionary antibiotic.

[1]Major, Ralph Hermon.Fatal Partners:War and disease.3^rd.London:Doran&Company,1941.

WebsitesDixon,Bernard.”Sulfa’s True Significance.”

[2]2007<http://www.asm.org/ASM/files/ccLibraryFiles//002645/.pdf>.

[3]Kendrick,Douglas,”Plasma equipment and Packaging.” Medical department U.SArmy.06 June 2006. 26 May 2007http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wii/blood/chapter1.htm.

[4]Mailer,John. “Penicillin:Medicine’s Wartime.” Illinois Periodicals Online atNorthern Illinois University. Illionois periodicals online.20 June [5]2011http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/2001/iht810139.html.

[6]17 June 2011http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/medical/mspg5.htm.

[7]http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_world_war_two.htm.

[8]21 June 2011http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/florey/story.htm.

[9]http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/curriculumca/do3Abigchalk%1.

[10]http://www.mcatmaster.com/medicine&war/penicillin.htm

http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art‐40417

[11](home.att.net/steinert.htm).

[12]Margotta, Roberto.History of Medicine. Britain:Hamlyn, 1996.

[13] http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/38/Gonorrhea.html

Atabrine

2011-06-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

[1]

Atabrine was developed by a german dye industry and has been in use for decades. Before WWII thousands of malaria cases have been treated with atabrine. Tests were conducted to prove whether quinine or atabrine was more effective. Atabrine unlike quinine has no serious toxic effects. Both drugs however are not guaranteed to cure malaria within one course of treatment and doesn’t prevent infection if used as prophylactic. Both drugs however are useful in suppressing clinical symptoms in stressful war periods. Qunine is obtained from cinchona bark which are meager. Hence it was critical to have quinine to cure malaria cases otherwise conducting military operations in tropic countries would have been impossible to carry out. During WWII, Supplies have expanded. . Thus, the loss of most of the world's supply of quinine to the Japanese has not proved to be a serious handicap to the health of the allied soldiers[3]

But why wasn’t quinine used in WWII? That’s because the Japanese captured more than 90% of the world’s supply of quinine when they occupied the Dutch East Indies. Hence allied navy and army employed atabrine for both suppressive and curative treatments. Atabrine causes yellowing of the skin as it’s a yellow dye. In a small percentage of cases nausea and vomiting were observed. These symptoms are seldom serious and once the drug is stopped, the clinical side effects disappear. The majority of individuals experienced no side effects and took one tablet after each meal.[3]

[2]

[1]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/5020655205_a8a36c7085.jpg

[2]http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/MedConslt1/figures/fig184.jpg

[3]Stenly, Lone. "WWII Tactical and Technical Trends Series, U.S. Military Intelligence Service (Lone Sentry)."Lone Sentry: World War II Photographs, Documents, and Research. U.S. War Department Publication Tactical and Technical Trends.ju, 3 June 1943. Web. 18 June 2011

War crimes by Japanese physicians in U 731

2011-06-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

War crimes by Japanese physicians

can you guess what this is at the centre of the picture below?To you the map below might look likea game, but in reality it's as true as can be. Let me explain to you what this picture is about, but before I give it away easily let me take you on a trip down memmory lane. Let's imagine:

Picture A

Japan has occupied your hometown in NorthEast China and you're now a Prisoner of War (P.O.W).One day the doctors blind fold you, strap you and your cell mates onto wooden boards placed at strategic locations (See Picture A above) and refuse to disclose the ongoing situation to you.One minute Suddenly you hear a deafening nearby explosion and then, you cease to exist. can you guess what this is at the centre of the picture marked (?) ?To you the map below might look like a game, but to the Japanese Scientists working in Unit-731 it was plain human-subject based research in what's known as an "experimental field" the map of which is shown above, at the centre of which is placed a bomb. The experiment is designed to test the relationship between wounds caused by shrapnels and the distance away from the bomb.

Welcome to unit 731.

Shiro Shii

Dr Shiro Shii was the mastermind behind the formation of U-731. He located the Unit 731 laboratory in a remote area in the newly occupied Empire, Harbine. The aims of U-731 were simple: To sacrifice P.O.W for research subjects whose experiments were directed towards biochemical and chemical warfare, inorder to be able to eradicate Japan's enemies and also to provdie antidotes to Japan's soldiers who might have been afflicted by those biochemical diseases. Sounds like Frankenstein's lab, but you'll be surprised that this lab was fully funded by the Japanese government for the latest technology available. The location of Manchukuo , the occupied area of china, pprovided almost 600 test subjects per year [2]. Dr Shiroo Shii selected creme de la creme scientests and researchers to be part of the project. The experiments done on test subjects included injecting them with as many as 50 various potentially lethal germs, and testing the clinical effects this would have on them and how long it would take for them to die, as opposed to other test subjects who were vaccinated against the disease. This allowed them to craft vaccinations produced as prophylactic measures to biochemical warfare to perfection. This information was provided by Yoshi Shinozuku, a researcher who was part of the U-731 project and has come forward to state all he's witnessed and has been instructed to do by higher authorities after U-731 was disassembled.

The experiments were inhumane as mostly they did vivosection, inwhich the person remains alive meanwhile an autopsy is being carried out. How gruesome could it have been?! POWs were so disposable by the researchers they were given the term, "logs".

Shiro Shii not only gave permission to experiment with human subjects inside the laboratories, whenever they believed that they developed a prototype effective enough to kill many people, they would experiment on civilians in many parts of China that weren't even under the occupation of Japan.

Shiro Shii instructed the growth of thousands of plague infested rats in the lab, which allowed for bubonic bacteria to grow. 3 out of 4 people who contracted the disease died. He found this to be a perfect method of biological warfare, but he did not know how to spread the fleas which grew on infected rats to the area he wanted to infect. And since his interest now lied not within labatories, but in "experimentation fields" whereby neutral civilians resided. Initially he attempted spreading bubonic plague by fighter planes that would spray flees on nearby chinese countryside by placing the infected fleas within boxes that would be dropped from midair. In 1942, 1/3 of the villagers died, asWang Xuang, who is a representitive of Chinese Victims at the time stated. He also poisoned local water supplies to this very country village, which was another means of spreading plague. At the end of the field experiment almost 13 villages were wiped out as a result of plague, as a survivor of the U 731 Field Testing Huang YueFeng recalled. Shiro Shii knew this was the perfect warfare instrument to use so he attempted to perfect the means of spreading it.

His genius plan was to use ceramic bombs as means to spread the deadly fleas. Again he picked the villages he wanted to be part of his Field testing. Despite knowing fully well that this was going to eradicate their population without an ounce of a doubt, his mania towards perfectionism caused him to transport his very researchers to the infected villages so they would carry out autopsies. ofcourse the researchers were well protected by white masks and suits(Wang Xuang).

But who was Japan's greatest enemy that those weapons were developed to perfection aimed to fight?Sheldon Harris, the author of Factories of death, stated that It was the USA that Sheldon was aiming to destroy.

unfortunately, Shiro Shii's researchers should have known they were playing with fire as eventually they got a taste of their own medicine ; almost 1600 of them died as a result of lab acquired infections.

Crimes by Japanese physicians were not publicized as were those by Nazi physicians, nor were Japanese physicians tried in the Tokyo War Crimes trials. Evidence regarding the unethical Japanese wartime activities surfaced in the last decade particularly after a traveling exhibit on biological warfare research, which toured 61 locations in Japan during 1993 and 1994 [5]. Some researchers and staff members stepped forth to testify to what the crimes they’ve witnessed by the Japanese physicians to the Chinese civilians. Also some documentaries were produced about U 731 raising public awareness about this issue to the world. Japanese physicians and scientists undertook a massive program of biological warfare during WWII. A focus of this activity was a facility known as Unit 731, whose headquarters was near Harbin, China. Research at Unit 731 aimed to investigate infectious wartime disease, which was the leading cause of death to soldiers than trauma. Ishii supervised defensive research that would prevent disease in Japanese soldiers and instead increase disease in enemies of Japan both military and civilian. Substantial number of medical experiments performed on prisoners, often caused terrible suffering and eventually death either as a result of experimentation or intentional euthanasia . Of the prisoners were : Chinese civilians and military personnels, Russian locals and Korean “comfort women”. [5].

Research aimed at prevention of disease produced innovations at Unit 731, but at the cost of human life. Under Dr. Ishii's direction, researchers invented a portable water filtration system that allowed Japanese soldiers to use water that’s not usually potable. Also other investigations aimed to understand how to counteract frostbites soldiers are subjected so. Hence, they exposed prisoners to subzero temperatures in attempt to simulate war environments to study the physiology of freezing, but prisoners died both due to frostbite and due to the experimental treatments [6].

Research was conducted on sexually transmitted disease, always the scourge of armies. Unit 731 staff members reported witnessing forced sex acts by infected prisoners, including Korean comfort women. Former staff of Unit 731 have testified that vivisection was a common means of studying disease processes [5].

Unit 731 also conducted extensive research on biological warfare that was aimed towards spreading diseases like cholera,malaria & bubonic plague. The aftermath to such experiments lead to outbreaks in civilian area of Harbin, China for bubonic plague. [7]. Unit 731 researchers designed various bombs for biological warfare; these bombs were used in China and against Soviet troops [2]. Bombs carrying infected fleas were dropped in areas where prisoners were tied to stakes, and careful measurements were taken in order to determine the efficacy of different methods. Civilian water supplies in local areas were also reportedly subject to intentional infection as part of biological warfare research [5]. Large numbers of research subjects as well as local residents are said to have died as a result of intentional exposure to toxic agents, either as a way to study the natural history of a disease, or its most effective route of transmission [1].

However there’s much that we still don’t know about unit 731 as it was dismantled soon after the war, as a very Top-secret project. Oddly enough, there were no survivors of the victims from Unit 731as bodies were burned and prisoners executed. Also, research records were destroyed as to conceal any evidence to the highly sensitive and valuable information the Japanese have discovered in biological warfare.

However, not all evidence of Unit 731 was successfully suppressed. A few photographs remain, including photographs of bodies stacked and awaiting incineration. Likewise, some documents, including hundreds of autopsy reports of murdered research subjects, survived the attempt to destroy evidence [1].

Most of the senior staff of Unit 731, including Dr. Ishii, returned to Japan as the war ended. These highly ranked staff members came under the exclusive jurisdiction of US military forces at the end of the war.

All other ethical norms, including the norms of medical ethics, were subordinate to the higher goals physicians of Unit 731 aspired to. Research subjects were viewed not as suffering humans, but as non-human experimental material. Neither medical training nor medical ethics prevented these doctors from succumbing to the psychological and military structures that constitute "atrocity-producing situations" [9].

Non disclosure of medical information to patients can constitute an ethical problem unless if the physician’s intent in withholding information is to be beneficial to the patient and the patient must also view this practice as beneficial. Finally, the patient must at least agree to the practice of withholding information in that particular case. Physicians can consult the family to know more about the patient’s beliefs and assess the best way to disclose the diagnosis/information.[3]

By contrast, the abuse of research subjects as documented in Unit 731 can never be ethical. Research, unlike medical treatment, poses an inherent ethical challenge, because sometimes it may not be so beneficial for the test subject himself or herself but my bring greater good for many more people in the future. Consent is important in both treatment and in the ethical practice of research, as noted in various codes of research ethics. In the case of Unit 731, no pretense of consent was made; there was no pretense of benefit to the subject, instead the mentality was that the lives of those people would be beneficial to thousands if not many more millions in the future. It’s believed that the culture of japan may have supported such abuse of prisoners. Japanese citizens and soldiers made enormous sacrifices to support the war, even to the point of committing suicide. However, this should not be the basis of an ethical practice; it must at a minimum be accepted by those to whom it was applied to in such instance i.e. the prisoners. Considering that they were not “voluntary prisoners” we can conclude that none of them accepted to be subjected to research.

References :

2011-06-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

The Great Depression

The great depression was caused by the Wall Street Crash which started in 1929 and extended up to 1930. By 1932,one of the effects of the great depression, was the high rates of unemployment. Millions of people in Britain did not have a job. Free food and shelter were provided by charities and churches. The structure of family life was altered as many men lost their jobs and could not earn money to support their families. Many lost their source of income and their houses. The lives of children also drastically changed. Children had to bear more responsibilities. They had to drop out of school and start work to help out their families. They also had to mature and grow up quickly to provide emotional support for their families. The number of cases of domestic and child abuse also increased during this time as stress levels and sense of failure was high among the troubled public. Men began to feel unworthy and humiliated as their wives and children had to start work to gain some income. The rate of suicides had also increased. There were stories of people who jumped from from tall buildings to end their lives due to bankruptcy. Starvation was a huge problem. Farmers even killed their animals despite the shortage of food because no one could afford to buy food. People were getting desperate and some even set forests on fire on purpose so that jobs as fire fighters would be available. It was a terrible time of distress and poverty. Things however were improving slowly towards the beginning of world war two, where by more job opportunities were available.

Thousand of people on Wall street as the news spread.

The traumatic experience suffered during world war one unfortunately did not end after the battle ended. World war one definitely had caused some psychological effects on both civilians and soldiers. WW1 introduce the term “shell shock”. It is currently know as Combat Stress Reaction (CSR). Shell shock was described as psychological traumatic experienced. Some of the symptoms of shell shock are anxiety, depression, disorientation, nightmares and insomnia.

Some soldiers who endured the long intense battle started suffering from panic attacks and the symptoms were usually recognized more quickly by their fellow soldiers instead of the authorities. Initially, many perceived shell shock to be caused by the effects of shell blasts or from intense monoxide exposure. Shell shock was initially thought of an act of cowardice as some soldiers would leave the battlefield due to panic attacks. Some soldiers even had to undergo trials and got convicted. Treatment for shell shock at that time included –

· -solitary confinement

· -disciplinary treatment

· -electric shock treatment

· -shaming and physical re-education

· -emotional deprivation

There was a huge increase in number of war neurosis thus resulting in shortage of number of hospital beds to accommodate the victims. A number of hospitals for mental diseases were build and taken over from other unused buildings. Also, there was an improvement in psychiatric treatment and increase in umber of psychiatrists to help treat the victims.

After living through the horrid years of the war, all the destruction the war had caused and especially the loss of their loved ones, the civilians were scarred. Almost 13 million lives were killed during the war. Anger and dissatisfaction towards their government and leaders started to grow amongst the citizens. Many felt that the effect of the war and began to question why the war began in the first place. The dreams and spirits of the people were low as they mourned over their loved ones and tried move on after the war.

References :

http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/21-104-Life-in-interwar-years.html

www.historylearningsite.co.uk/wall_street_crash.htm

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech5.htm

www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/shellshock.htm

www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/extra/series-1/shell_shocked.shtml

http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/great_war/effects.htm

http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/egd_02/egd_02_00431.html

Videos

2011-06-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

"Stories from the great depression" This video contains commentaries from people who have actually lived through and were affected by the Great Depression during the inter-war period.

It describes the downfall of many people. It's virtually impossible to find someone who was not touched one way or another by the status of the country during The Great depression.

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"The seeds for emotional,physical and mental illness are in every one of us just as are the seeds of physical illness."(quote from the video).This is definitely one of the most fascinating videos I have ever come across on youtube. It happens to be a documentary about the Treatment of military-acquired mental disorders. It's a movie of eight parts that is guaranteed to capture your interest as some of the acts seem utterly unbelievable, yet surprisingly true. It sheds a whole new light about the psychological pressure soldiers are exposed to during war. This is an excerpt from the video.

Military psychiatry covers special aspects of psychiatry and mental disorders within the military context. The aim of military psychiatry is to keep as many serving personnel as possible fit for duty and to treat those disabled by psychiatric conditions.
Psychiatric disorders have been related to the greatest number of casualties and discharges in several wars. Such conditions typically have somatic manifestations. On-site, emergency psychiatric treatment reduces the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity within the military context.
Military psychology is the research, design and application of psychological theories and experimentation data towards understanding, predicting and countering behaviours either in friendly or enemy forces or civilian population that may be undesirable, threatening or potentially dangerous to the conduct of military operations.
Military psychology is applied towards counseling and treatment of stress and fatigue of military personnel as well as treatment of psychological trauma suffered as a result of military operations.
Another use of military psychology is in interrogation of prisoners who may provide information that would enhance outcomes of friendly military operations or reduce friendly casualties.

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This is another documentary that explores the ethical issues behind the heinous crimes that were committed during the Holocaust in the Nazi concentration or rather, extermination camp "Auschwitz". Some survivors of the Holocaust were interviewed and they recall their horrific experience. This video is definitely not for the faint hearted.

This documentary is about Unit 731 ,which was set up in Manchuria after Japan invaded this part of China. It's known as a "laboratory conceived in hell, no conscience, no humanity no compassion no sense of ethics in it, a place where death was routinely harvested".."those who entered it were never seen." This video is highly valuable because it exposes the conspiracy contract between USA and Japan, whereby USA agreed not to press charges against the scientists of japan who have used human POWs , many of whom were from the USA, as laboratory rats whereby they got injected with lethal germs in attempt to develop research on biochemical warfare; to devise means by which Japan's enemies can be eradicated by debilitating biological weapons. Not only that, they have managed to develop antidotes to such biochemical weapons, in the case whereby the Japanese fall victims to them. It's a well believed fact that America agreed to cover up for the Japanese atrocities in return to obtaining all of the biological warfare research they have done while sacrificing countless lives of human subjects, better known as "wooden logs" by the Japanese.

Again this is one of the most fascinating videos we've come across that's of greatly controversial ethical issues, whose side are you on?

This 5 parts of an amazing footage during World War 2. This very much explains the events that took place during the war precisely and its consequences.

Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne operation ever launched in history.

The plan called for the American 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) to land near Eindhoven and secure bridges in Son and Veghel, while keeping the main highway open and secure to allow the British 30 Corps Armor to advance into Holland. The 101st also fought in towns near the main road such as Nuenen in the southeast, and Schijndel in the northwest.The entire operation was supposed to be completed within 48 hours.The reality however, would prove different...

Just a little montage put together. It chronicles the Allied/Axis conflict in Europe. This video has drawn a lot of political/morale debate. This video was made as a tribute for the sake of war. It's a human characteristic to quarrel over unimportant things. Im glad we ended this though, the best way of paying tribute to those heroes is remembering them, not fighting about who’s better or who’s not

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This is a funny video about Battlefield medicine:

Just a project for honors human physiology. The corny-ness makes it funny

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Introductory note to our blog

2011-06-21T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

Knowledge of World War II and other global turning points in history advances one's understanding of how our contemporary society developed. Mark Twain once said that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. World War II killed millions of people, involved many nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Beyond all this the world witnessed our humanities being crushed down to ashes.

We pray you would skim through our blog and by the time you leave it you would have learnt something new.

Please don't forget to complete the poll at the bottom of the page and drop us some feedback in the chatbox.

Cheers,

BigBangStory Team.

2011-06-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

But why wasn’t quinine used in WWII? That’s because the Japanese captured more than 90% of hthe world’s supply of quinine when they occupied the Dutch East Indies. Hence allied navy and army employed atabrine for both suppressive and curative treatments. Atabrine causes yellowing of the skin as it’s a yellow dye. In a small percentage of cases nausea and vomiting were observed. These symptoms are seldom serious and once the drug is stopped, the clinical side effects disappear. The majority of individuals experienced no side effects and took one tablet after each meal .

Stenly, Lone. "WWII Tactical and Technical Trends Series, U.S. Military Intelligence Service (Lone Sentry)." Lone Sentry: World War II Photographs, Documents, and Research. U.S. War Department Publication Tactical and Technical Trends.ju, 3 June 1943. Web. 18 June 2011

Penicillin and WWII

2011-06-20T22:09:00.001-07:00

This is a Funny Rap video made to describe Alexander Fleming's discovery of Penicillin..

As Dr Ralph Major said “An army is a vast medical laboratory when disease and injuries are seen on a far larger scale than in peacetime. Many improvements in the treatment of infections have come from experiences on battlefield”[1] The aftermath of the War has resulted in civilians and soldiers having life threatening illnesses and diseases, which propelled scientist to look for antidotes. Resulting in three of the most important medical innovatons in history namely: Penicillin, blood plasma and vaccines.

“Penicillin fought for soldiers as bravely as they did for theoir countries”[5]

Penicillin was without a doubt the most important invention during WWII.on D day it was estimated it has saved 3000 lives and by the end of the war almost 2 million [7].

The first use of penicillin during WWII was seen in the Battle of Britain where air raids by the Luftwaffle left soldiers and civilians in severe wounds and doctors used penicillin in large numbers to save the lives of many civilians and soldiers as Penicillin was the first brad spectrum Ab ever created(www.lib.niu.edu) which destroys hemolytic streptococcus, gonorrhea, syphilis and it was a wonderful Ab for wounds and burns.

Propaganda such as “thanks to penicillin he will come home” gave hope to civilians and soldiers that their risk of dying due to infection is very little with the introduction of the wonder drug. This hence motivated civilians to get recruited into the war .

In 1938 Dr Charles Drew discovered how to separate plasma from whole blood and refrigerat them separately[5] .This discovery armed Allied forces with hope since many soldiers with trauma related injuries lost a lot of blood and with the new invention of plasma, blood loss can be substituted for. In 1940 Britain organized the International Transfusion Association which allowed civilians to donate blood which was then separated out into plasma and blood cells.

Within five months[6] , this project managed to transfport around 15000 unit

To allied armies. It was mentioned in US office of war newsreel, “soldiers in Normandy got the best medical care science could afford and plasma cheated death in cases of many soldiers”[7]. A ton of Plasma was carried by planes on D day to the beach helping save about 900 soldiers’ lives [7] . Plasma offered a glimmer of hope to soldiers making them believe that their injury wouldn’t necessarily result in their demise.

Discovery of Penicillin

Image- http://osee3.unblog.fr/files/2009/08/0a1014.jpg

In 1928,Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) found a mold growing on some bacterial samples in his laboratory by chance. He discovered that the “mold juice” killed many different types of inoculated bacteria such as staphylococci and many other Gram-positivepathogens that cause scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis and diphtheria as well as neisseria gonorrhea. Fleming published his discovery in 1929, in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology,^[8] but little attention was paid to his article. Flemming continued to work alone finding more and more difficulties in isolating the antibiotic factor from the mold, which turned out to be very little in quantity. Overtime, Fleming became convinced that penicillin won’t be effective in vivo as its actions seemed too slow, at least with the dose he was able to provide to the patient at that time[9] Fleming finally gave up on penicillin investigations but soon enough , Florey and Chain who continued with Flemming’s work and took up researching and mass-producing Penicillin, with funds from the U.S. and British governments. They became very pressed with time to start producing penicillin in mass quantities, n after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Hence the war is believed to have contributed dramatically to medical innovation as it provided an incentive to mass produce penicillin within a very limited time period.

But Sir Henry Harris said in 1998: "Without Fleming, no Chain; without Chain, no Florey; without Florey, no Heatley; without Heatley, no penicillin.( Henry Harris, Howard Florey and the development of penicillin, a lecture given on Sept. 29, 1998, at the Florey Centenary, 1898–1998, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford University)

Image-(https://www.planetseed.com/node/17134)

Penicillin dramatically reduced mortality amongst the soldiers as a prophylactic and drug of effective treatment. It could be said that penicillin could treat almost all camp diseases soldiers encountered. It was dubbed, “miracle drug” and it

created a massive demand for pharmaceutical companies in Great Britain and the US[21] which helped in enhancing the economy of the countries making them into "Super Powers".

To understand the method of action of penicillin click here

To watch a RAP video about Alexander Fleming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=manUDTXbQqY

References :

[1]Major, Ralph Hermon.Fatal Partners:War and disease.3^rd.London:Doran&Company,1941.

WebsitesDixon,Bernard.”Sulfa’s True Significance.”

[2]2007<http://www.asm.org/ASM/files/ccLibraryFiles//002645/.pdf>.

[3]Kendrick,Douglas,”Plasma equipment and Packaging.” Medical department U.SArmy.06 June 2006. 26 May 2007http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wii/blood/chapter1.htm.

[6]17 June 2011http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/medical/mspg5.htm.

[7]http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_world_war_two.htm.

[8]21 June 2011http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/florey/story.htm.

[9]http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/curriculumca/do3Abigchalk%1.

[10]http://www.mcatmaster.com/medicine&war/penicillin.htm

http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art‐40417

[11](home.att.net/steinert.htm).

[12]Margotta, Roberto.History of Medicine. Britain:Hamlyn, 1996.

[13] http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/38/Gonorrhea.html

Health and medicine

2011-06-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

The three most important medical innovations that have ended infectious era were:

A)Vaccination

Vaccinations saved countless numbers of lives during WWII.It took over two centuries to enable vaccines that were devised in ancient times to be mass produced. Of the Allied countries,US and Britain vaccinated their troops agianst typhoid fever, smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, plague, typhus and the chief surgical consultant in European Theatre, Cutler believed that without the vaccinations the troops were given, diseases would have posed a great threat [1]. Tetanus, a disease that once had a 20-58% mortality rate in WWI was reduced to .000001% in WWII. There were only 11 cases and 4 fatalities among approximately 11 million soldiers.[ 2]

Also,after the yellow fever vaccine was developed in 1940 not a single US soldier became infected with the disease. The final turning point in which disease was no longer the predominant killer in war was afterthealliedforcesintroducedantibioticsonalargescale. AfterDay,which was the height of antibiotic production, allied military deaths caused by infection were almost zero [3]

Image-http://thats-so-boss.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

B) Century blood transfusions earlier could not be conducted on battlefields as technology was not present to prevent coagulation of blood.. Two important discoveries were made in 1915 whereby sodium citrate proved to prevent clumpin of blood[4] and refrigeration of blood preserved it. Those breakthroughs enabled blood transfustion during the war.

These discoveries led up to the creation of the first Red Cross Blood transfusion service in 1926

in Great Britain and the first blood bank hospital in Leningrad Russia in 1932. WWII was the first war.

C) Penicillin

[1]Vincent J. Cirillo, "Two Faces of Death fatalities from disease and combat in

Americas principal wars, 1775 to present," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51

(2008) 121

[2]Vincent J. Cirillo, "Two Faces of Death fatalities from disease and combat in

Americas principal wars, 1775 to present," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51

(2008) 128

[3]Vincent J. Cirillo, "Two Faces of Death fatalities from disease and combat in

Americas principal wars, 1775 to present," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51

(2008) 129

[4]"Highlights of Transfusion Medicine History." AABB. 12 Apr. 2006.

Advancing Transfusion and Cellular Therapies Worldwide. 28 Feb. 2009

2011-06-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Before WWI, Frank w. Weed wrote that if there were earlier records about wartime diseases in the USA during the civil war, epidemics might have been foreseen and diarrheas prevented.

Before World War II the majority of fatalities in war were not caused by trauma but by diseases. Common diseases like dysentery, cholera, typhus, typhoid fever, smallpox and the influenza were the major killers of soldiers. WWII marked the transition from infectious to trauma era.

Trauma wounds cause injury to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agents like bullets, shrapnel, or blunt force injuries. Medical advances with blood transfusions, vaccines, and antibiotics caused a shift from infection being the most significant cause of combat fatalities to trauma causing the most deaths.

Modern military history from a medical perspective can be divided into two eras, the Infection Era and the Trauma Era, depending on the etiology of death of the soldiers. The Infection Era began in 1775 and continued until the end of WWI in 1918. Diseases weakened troops and increased their vulnerability in battle. According to military hygienist Alfred A.Woodhull “the sick are for the time as ineffective as the dead.”[1]

[1]Vincent J. Cirillo, "Two Faces of Death fatalities from disease and combat in Americas principal wars, 1775 to present," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51 (2008) 121 .

Prior to WWII, infectious diseases spread out ramptly because the trenches lacked sanitation and proper disposal of wastes. On average, the number Disease spread rampantly throughout over crowded camps in which there was a lack of sanitation and disposal of wastes. Soldiers and doctors practiced poor hygiene, which helped spread disease. On average the infectious deaths to combat deaths was 4.34:1 between 1775 and 1918. The highest ratio occurred during the War of 1812 inwhich there was a ratio of 7.5 infectious deaths to each combat death.

After WWI, An average of 1.1 infection deaths to each combat death occurred.

(of 7.5 infectious deaths to each combat death, compared with 1.1:1 in WWII.
www.lemoyne.edu/Portals/11/pdf_content/History_Paper.pd.).The end of the infectious era was marked by influenza pandemic in 1918. This flu outbreak covered the entire world and spread rapidly throughout the armies in WWI Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News, http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/)..

The Trauma Era began in 1941 and continues today. This presented a shift in which significantly more soldiers died from battle injuries than infections, despite no drastic change in wartime weapons between WWI and WWII,

By the end of WWII only .06(www.lemoyne.edu/Portals/11/pdf_content/History_Paper.pdf) soldiers died from infection to each combat related death

To learn more about infectious diseases in world war two click here

2011-06-20T14:18:00.001-07:00

The use of gas masks was prompted by the start of gas attacks. Mustard gas and phosgene were the most commonly used gases for attacks. Even though prevention of the attacks were the best solution, that is, using gas masks, artificial respiration devices were also used. During the second world war, Britain feared that gas attacks, particularly mustard gas (which is the most deadly) would affect civilians and so implemented the idea that all people should carry around gas masks.

A poster reminding people to always carry their gas masks^.(1)

1914–1918 WWI

Infection/combat deaths = 1:1

MEDICAL ADVANCES: Triage, prosthetics, plastic surgery, public health, antisepsis medicines, vaccines

1939–1945 WWII

Infection/combat deaths = <1:1

MEDICAL ADVANCES : Improved sanitation, better vaccines, whole-blood transfusions

References :

(1)http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/war/gasmasks.htm

(2)http://classic.the-scientist.com/article/display/15060/