Friday September 6th, 1918
Nothing doing. Only practice 9am till 11am and 2pm till 3pm. Inoculation at 5 o’clock – feel fair after it.
TAB Inoculation
A few days ago the Battalion Diary mentioned that the men were to receive TAB inoculations . Frank receives his first jab today. There were known side-effects, but it looks like Frank hasn’t suffered them. The TAB vaccine combats typhoid and paratyphoids A and B – hence the name.
Typhoid, passed on readily from infected patients when in unsanitary conditions, was rife in Army life throughout the 19th century. It caused the deaths of 80,000 Northern soldiers during the American Civil War and five times as many deaths of US soldiers in the Spanish-American War as those from combat.
The British bacteriologist AE Wright first developed an effective typhoid vaccine at the Army Medical School in the UK. It was introduced to the British Army in 1896 and helped reduce the impact of typhoid amongst troops during the Boer War. After this initial success, Wright continued to make improvements to the vaccine. At the outbreak of WWI, he convinced the British Army that all soldiers should be vaccinated and 10 million doses were issued. Some estimate that this saved half a million lives.¹
Read more about modern medicine in WWI and the importance of good sanitation.
Frank was vaccinated against cholera while in Salonika and has now received the first of two shots that will ward off typhoid. The First World War was the first war where deaths from combat exceeded those from disease. Clearly this says as a lot about the sheer destructiveness of modern weapons. However it also says something about better medical care and a greater understanding of the causes and prevention of disease.
The photograph shows a surgeon of the RAMC in an operating theatre on the Western Front.*
9th Battalion War Diary – 6th September 1918 – Haudricourt
Training as per programme. 3 OR having rejoined are again taken on the effective strength from 6-9-18 and 1 OR as above from 2-9-18. 29 OR reinforcements having joined the Battalion, are taken on from 6-9-18.
References & Further Reading
¹ Typhoid Fever on Wikipedia
* Q 23630, copyright Imperial War Museums