In the early stages of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

suffered an epidemic of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and

relapsing fever Relapsing fever is a vector-borne disease caused by infection with certain bacteria in the genus '' Borrelia'', which is transmitted through the bites of lice or soft-bodied ticks (genus ''Ornithodoros''). Signs and symptoms Most people who ar ...

. The epidemic first appeared in the late autumn of 1914, after the second Austrian offensive. By December the Austro-Hungarian troops were pushed out of Serbia for the second time in ten days. Around 50,000 wounded and sick remained in hospitals. Great problems with the lack of accommodation and food were affecting not only hospitals but the civilian population as well, besides that, there were around 50,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners that had to be accommodated and fed too. Dr. Roman Sondermajer established a large field hospital near Kragujevac, using army barracks to care for the sick and wounded.

Flora Sandes Flora Sandes (, 22 January 1876 – 24 November 1956) was a British woman who served as a member of the Royal Serbian Army in World War I. She was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in that war. Initially a St. John Ambula ...

, who started as a volunteer British nurse, recalled the conditions at the hospital in Kragujevac and meeting Dr. Sondermajer for the first time: A contingent of Scottish nurses and physicians served in the fight against the epidemic, with many, including Margaret Neill Fraser,

Louisa Jordan Louisa Jordan (24 July 1878 – 6 March 1915) was a Scottish nurse who died in service during the First World War. Early life and nursing career Louisa Jordan was born at 279 Gairbraid Street (now Maryhill Road) in the Maryhill area of Glasg ...

, and Elizabeth Ross, dying of typhus.

British Military Sanitary Committee to Serbia

In 1915, the British military doctor William Hunter headed the British Military Sanitary Committee to Serbia tasked with stopping the epidemic. The epidemic was stopped by June 1915 by introduction of several movement restriction measures and by introduction of two new disinfection methods, the " railway van disinfector", and the "barrel disinfector" now known as the Serbian barrel. In 1920, Hunter published a detailed account on the epidemic in the ''

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine The ''Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal. It is the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Medicine with full editorial independence. Its continuous publication history dates back to 1809. Since July 20 ...

''.

References

1915 health disasters 1915 in Serbia 20th-century epidemics Epidemic typhus Disease outbreaks in Serbia {{epidemic-stub