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Top 9 most common diseases during World War I

At any time, disease can take the lives of many people. In World War I, what took human lives was not simply bullets but also common diseases.

1. Fever

Malaria is a common disease, not only during World War I but also in the modern period. You may not know, this disease is the most dangerous disease, claiming the most lives in conflicts, including World War I.


Many soldiers and civilians were affected by malaria during World War I. People between the ages of 18 and 48 were mostly infected and many died from the disease. Some sources indicate that the British, French and Austro-Hungarian armies together had more than 20 million cases and an average monthly death toll of up to 80,000 people.


The lack of medicine, treatment facilities, and unsanitary living and fighting environments have given malaria the opportunity to rage and make it almost impossible to stop at certain times. After the war, mortality rates decreased as troops were moved from infected areas to safer and better living conditions.
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2. Typhoid and typhus

In terms of prevalence, right behind malaria are typhoid and typhus. Although these two diseases are no longer mentioned much in modern times, during World War I, they haunted many soldiers because of their danger.


Many people still mistakenly think typhoid and typhus are the same thing, but in reality, these diseases are not the same. Typhoid fever is an infection caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi and it was one of the fastest and most deadly diseases of World War I. Its symptoms include sweating, diarrhea and high temperature. People with typhoid fever become extremely dehydrated and endure severe pain.

Meanwhile, typhus, also known as gaol fever or ship fever, was transmitted among soldiers by body lice called Pediculus humanus. The disease arises due to poor hygiene. During the war, a large number of deaths occurred from typhus and because there were no antibiotics, the mortality rate varied from 10 to 80 percent.
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3. Flu

Influenza is a devastating disease, considered by many to be the god of death when it kills more people than guns and bullets in war. People also call it the Spanish Flu or La Grippe. The Spanish flu started as a major epidemic immediately after the 1918 war, then spread throughout Europe. Children and people between the ages of 20 and 40 are the most susceptible to infection. Poor diet, poor hygiene and polluted environment have caused the disease to spread quickly and leave many people unable to be cured.


People infected with the Spanish flu developed a deadly type of pneumonia accompanied by a number of symptoms including headaches, muscle aches, persistent dry cough, fever, weakness, sore throat and blood poisoning. Once someone is infected, they usually die within three days in severe pain and swelling.
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4. Heart disease

When it comes to heart disease during the world war, it basically has some of the same signs as modern heart disease. However, the level of death in world wars was much higher and more dangerous than today.


During World War I, heart defects were extremely difficult to detect and seemingly impossible to diagnose. Unless external signs arise when affected by a number of factors such as too loud sound, armed clashes, the smell of gunpowder,... which puts pressure on the heart. Often during World War I, heart disease would be inherited in adults, damaging the 4 main valves of the heart, causing stroke.


Normally, soldiers suspected of having heart problems will be discharged or not allowed to fight on the battlefield.
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5. Diabetes

Diabetes often ended in death for many sufferers, as the discovery of insulin was still 20 years away. Civilians and soldiers suffering from this disease had to follow strict diets, restricting their food intake to a large extent. There is no cure and death will come soon after diagnosis.
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6. Venereal disease

Venereal disease is one of the most common diseases during the world war. This disease mainly comes from unsafe sex causing infection. The number of these infections has increased massively and quickly spread in the army, causing soldiers' fighting ability to increasingly decline. At that time, venereal disease treatment was expensive, time-consuming and largely ineffective. Many countries, after discovering a rising number of cases, have introduced strict health policies and carried out medical examinations for soldiers and prostitutes to limit the disease.

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7. Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a terrible disease that killed many people during the war. It is caused by a slow-growing bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There are two stages leading to tuberculosis: primary stage and secondary stage. In the first stage, when they are diagnosed with the disease, they are classified as having lung failure. Meanwhile, symptoms of the secondary stage include coughing, spitting up blood, weight loss and high temperature. A person with second stage tuberculosis will be held to prevent them from spreading the disease to family members, friends, or anyone they come into contact with. Because at that time there was no effective medicine to treat the disease.


Although the disease gradually disappeared, it left physical and mental scars on those infected. Subsequent medical research helped develop vaccines and prevent outbreaks of tuberculosis during the wars that followed.
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8. Shell shock disease

By the end of World War I, the British Army alone had seen more than 80,000 cases of shell concussion. Shell shock is a term to describe soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress during war. Its symptoms include insomnia, inability to walk or talk, and panic attacks. Early in the war, shell shock was relatively rare. However, as the war progressed, the number of cases increased and doctors were unable to determine the exact cause of the disorder. There is speculation that the bomb's explosion caused shock waves in the soldiers' brains. Additionally, it is believed that carbon monoxide from the explosions damaged brain tissue.


Patients showing signs of shell shock were considered cowards, but as the number of cases of shell shock increased, people tried to find a solution to the problem. The answer was that the affected soldiers be given a few days' rest and their officers were instructed to discuss the matter with them, talking about both the war and their families back home. In severe cases, victims were taken to casualty clearing stations for weeks. If they still do not recover, they will undergo several more rounds of observation until they are ready to fight again.
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9. Trench foot disease

Trench foot - also known as foot infection - is a common disease that claimed many lives during World War I.


This disease caused soldiers' feet to turn red or blue. Most people get this disease due to exposure to damp, cold and unsanitary environments. If the condition gets worse, numbness in the leg can lead to gangrene and often require amputation.

The only solution to this problem at that time was for soldiers to wash their wounds with warm water, dry their feet and change their socks several times a day. The number of cases of foot odor rose to more than 75,000 in the British Army and about 2,000 soldiers in the United States Army. But improvements in the quality of soldiers' boots greatly reduced those numbers by the end of the war.
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