Throughout history more people in wars are felled not by weapons but by disease. The current conflicts American soldiers find themselves in are proving to be no exception, and are providing some significant new insights on medical vulnerabilities. In Iraq, the military is investigating 19 cases of severe pneumonia since March, including two fatalities. Smoking is seen as a factor. And in Liberia (remember how important it was just a few weeks ago to oust Charles Taylor?), over a third of U.S. Marines sent in as military advisors to oversee a civil transition have since been quietly extracted from the country after coming down with malaria. Obviously it’s time to send in R. Lee Ermey from Mail Call to provide a little motivation….
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This article reminds me of the major flu pandemic in 1918. Approximately a quarter of the world’s population caught the flu, and an estimated 40 million people died. For some reason, it targeted people in the age range of 20 to 40. (There is a good book about the pandemic.)
World War I was in full force at this time, and many, many American troops died of the flu. I recall reading that more of them died from flu than from combat. A good number of the troop deaths occurred in the U.S., at training camps in the Northeast. These poor men never had a chance.