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Show Curb Disease In Modern War Six That in the Past Took Heavy Toll Said to Be Under Control. WASHINGTON. Six of the diseases dis-eases which in past great wars have taken more lives than bullets have appeared in Europe's present battle areas. But to date each has been stopped, with apparently fair chances it may not spread to dangerous proportions, propor-tions, according to information gathered gath-ered by the Associated Press. The explanations, promising something some-thing new on the good side in war, come from physicians of England, Germany, Switzerland and France. Most of the examples of the German Ger-man cleanup of battlefields come from Switzerland. The diseases so far reported are flu, cerebrospinal meningitis, typhus, ty-phus, typhoid, smallpox and dysentery. dysen-tery. These reports were gathered after aft-er American physicians had suggested sug-gested it is unusual and perhaps significant that after a year of war no great epidemics have been reported. re-ported. Situation in Britain. Influenza and cerebrospinal meningitis men-ingitis are the only infectious diseases dis-eases which have risen in England in the present war. Better housing, better food and improved preventive prevent-ive measures are expected to hold even those two in check. "I think," a medical official explained, ex-plained, "we are safe in predicting there will never be in this war an influenza epidemic similar to those of 1918 and 1919. "A third of the population has been rehoused since 1918 in cleaner, more sanitary dwellings. "Another factor working against disease is the large supply of food. In 1918, when influenza struck, it found a mighty ally in malnourish-meht. malnourish-meht. Don't forget we then had 2Mj years of blockade." . Cerebrospinal meningitis, this official of-ficial said, is now treated with the new drug sulfanilamide. This has cut its death rate from as high as 90 per cent, down to 20, and in some hospitals to 10. British medical and scientific Journals Jour-nals have commented on the surprise when evacuated children failed to develop epidemics. Three of the principal worries, measles, whooping whoop-ing cough and diphtheria, actually dropped. Statement From Germany, German physicians on the heels of the German army have operated so efficiently that up to now the usual war epidemics have not occurred. An authoritative spokesman said today occupied territories received special consideration. The Scandinavian Scandi-navian lands, Holland, Belgium and France, he said, gave comparatively comparative-ly little concern to medical authorities, authori-ties, but Poland, where typhus is endemic, furnished a "field day for medical authorities." Germans there encountered conditions condi-tions which medical authorities describe de-scribe as primitive. Doctors who followed the army into Poland required re-quired almost universal compulsory vaccinations. Hundreds of medical centers were set up for mothers and babies, often in kindergartens. This authority declared the parU of Poland under German domination domina-tion are healthier today than a year ago. He said that while the army medical service gives some attention atten-tion to civilian emergencies, the military mil-itary is entirely separate from the Reich's public health service and leaves general problems to public health officials. French and foreign health experts who have traveled through occupied areas of France say German military mili-tary and French civil and military doctors have saved France from epidemics, ep-idemics, and perhaps plagues, under worst conditions of civilized times. |