Show A NATION SAVED frank W leclere A soul stirring tale of almost miraculous achievements of unselfish devotion to duty dutty and of heroic self sacrifice is the story i of the conquering of the typhus plague in serbia it forms one of the few bright chapters in the history of the present war war typhus is a very contagious and highly fatal disease due to a germ which is transmitted by the bite of the bodai louse in former centuries typhus was a common scour gi gt especially in times of war and famine and was known as jail fever ship fever camp fever etc at present it is r aae raae rare except among half civilized peoples in the fall of 1914 serbia already devastated by the two balkan wars was fighting desperately to stem the tide of invasion from austria on the north when an epidemic of typhus fever appeared and forthe for the greater part of the year swept through the land every hospital prison camp barracks and almost every home was invaded A conservative serva tive ive estimate placed the deaths at including austrian prisoners the nation was threatened with extermination mi A As soon as the plight of serbia bec became me known a sanitary commission mis lalon of surgeons and nurses headed by dr richard P strong of harvard medical school was waa sent to the stricken nation by the american red cross to reen re en force the few serbian doctors and the small group of american physicians land and nurses al reada on the ground they arrived about the end of april and beiran beban their work quarantine and sanitation were enforced the people were bathed and dis infected hospitals were pro aided vided vi dedor or reconstructed and modernized erni zed tn august the plague y is routed and most of the red cross bross workers returned home but this victory was not achieved without its sacrifices fully abne one third of the native doctors tors st died of the disease at one time jime nine of twelve american red cross nurses and five of six red C cross ross surgeons at one cen ter were lying inan old tobacco factory the victims of typhus two graves are kept green and flower strewn by grateful serfs serb ians they are the graves of dr james F donnelly and dr ernest emest P magruder two american I 1 physicians who for the honor of their profession and their love jove of humanity laid down their lives in a far distant land |