Jewish doctors in Nazi-occupied Poland stopped an epidemic in its tracks. Here's how.
By Mindy Weisberger - Senior Writer 8 hours ago
If people in such appalling conditions can do it, we can too, experts say.
World War II, Warsaw ghetto during the German occupation. Homes where infectious diseases were detected, in this case typhus fever, were closed off from the surrounding area.
(Image: © Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)
When a deadly typhus outbreak struck Poland's Warsaw ghetto during WWII, Jewish doctors helped stop the disease in its tracks, saving thousands.
More than 400,000 Jewish people were crammed into the 1.3-square-mile (3.4 square kilometers) ghetto in the Nazi-occupied country, and severe overcrowding, exposure to the elements and starvation created a perfect incubator for epidemics. When typhus broke out in 1941, it should have devastated the ghetto's vulnerable population.
But the disease began to sharply decline far sooner than expected, a new study finds. Swift containment efforts by the ghetto's Jewish community succeeded in ending it sooner than if it had naturally run its course, sparing more than 100,000 people from infection and likely preventing tens of thousands of deaths.
Typhus is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia prowazekii, and is transmitted rapidly by infected fleas or body lice that travel from person to person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The disease causes high fever, chills, coughing and severe muscle pain, and it is fatal in about 40% of cases if untreated, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. "Explosive epidemics" of typhus are especially likely to surface when people live in overcrowded conditions with poor hygiene, according to WHO.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/warsaw-ghetto-typhus.html
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