MEDICAL PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

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Abstract
The author, who was Chief Surgeon of the U. S. Army Forces in the Middle East, discusses the diseases encountered in this theater and the measures taken to protect the troops from infection. The variety of geographic and, climatic features of the area affect the distribution of diseases, as do also the environment, habits, and ways of living of the population, largely Mohammedan. Due to their habits they are exposed to typhoid fever, dysentery, malaria, sand-fly fever, small-pox, and typhus. Sanitation and screening are almost unknown. Bacillary dysentery was treated with sulfaguanidine with dramatically successful results. Sulfadiazine was also used with excellent results in the treatment of bacillary dysentery. Amoebic dysentery, commonly transmitted by the eating of green vegetables " fertilized by human excrement, was controlled by eating only cooked vegetables and berries. Typhoid was not a military problem as inoculation was most effective. Malaria control was also effective. However, malaria is difficult to diagnose and doctors in the U. S. should become familiar with the symptomatology and the multitude of manifesta- tions of malaria. Many men returning to this country will v have relapses. Control measures were effective for malaria, pappatacci (sand fly fever), typhus, yellow fever, and plague. Infectious hepatitis, trachoma, schistosomiases, dermal leish-maniasis, relapsing fever were not a problem to our troops. Venereal diseases were prevalent. Heat prostration was controlled by the use of salt. Somatic changes due to continued exposure to heat are described. Young American doctors soon to be sent overseas will encounter these unfamiliar diseases and need guidance to prepare them to recognize, to control, and to treat them. The problems of sand fly fever, infectious hepatitis, and the "heat syndrome" all require further research;.
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