TABLE 64.-Admissions, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, and Other Venereal Diseases, White Personnel, by Period

ber of Rate ber of Rate ber of Rate ber of Rate

TABLE 65.-Admissions, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, and Other Venereal Diseases, Colored Personnel, by Period

ber of Rate ber of Rate ber of Rate ber of Rate cases

cases

cases

cases

From a study of Tables 64 and 65 it can be seen that marked changes in venereal disease rates occurred during the period of the war. White personnel showed increasing amounts of other venereal disease and syphilis, with highest rates for all venereal disease in the third year of operations. Colored personnel, on the other hand, show the highest rates for venereal disease the first year of operations with considerable lowering of the rates for syphilis throughout the period. The third year of operations showed that the rate of total venereal

disease for white personnel was approximately twice that of the rate for the second year of operations. The venereal disease rate among colored personnel during the third year of operations was only 1.3 times the rate for the second year of operations.

A comparison of venereal disease rates for the 6-month period-January through June 1945-shows that the Service Command had the highest rates of all others. This was true in other theaters, and the reason for this was largely due to the type of work engaged in by Service Command troops which made it possible for them to come in contact with more infected women. Another consideration was that the majority of colored troops were in the Service Command. Comparative data on the various commands are shown in Table 66 below.

TABLE 66.-Venereal Disease Rates by Commands, January Through June 1945

During the 3-year period July 1942 through June 1945 personnel of the Air Forces in Western Europe contracted 5,054 cases of diarrhea and dysentery. The admission rate per 1,000 per annum for this period was 6.9. After the first year of operations in the theater, the admission rate for this condition showed practically no change with a rate of 7.4 reported the second year of operations and a rate of 7.0 the third year. This was true notwithstanding the movement to the Continent which necessitated living under field conditions for large numbers of personnel. Table 67 shows the number of cases and rate per 1,000 per annum of diarrhea and dysentery among personnel of the Air Forces in Western Europe during the fiscal years of the War.

Although malaria was not an important medical problem in western Europe, its occurrence helped to focus attention on one of the problems affecting personnel involved in global air warfare. During the period July 1942

TABLE 67.-Admissions, Diarrhea and Dysentery, Air Forces in Western Europe, July 1942-June 1945

through June 1943 six cases of malaria were reported among Air Force personnel in the British Isles. In October 1943 the number of cases of malaria reported among Air Force personnel in the British Isles began to increase until 148 had been reported in the period July 1943 through June 1944. Coincident with the arrival in the European Theater of units and personnel from the Ninth Air Force in the North Africa Theater, this increase continued through the period July 1944 through June 1945, during which time great numbers of personnel from the Mediterranean Theater were arriving in the Western European Theater. This increase was of some concern to the British. as the British Isles had always been free of malaria, and was explained entirely by the policy of malaria control in effect in the Mediterranean Theater. Atabrine, which was used in the Mediterranean Theater as a malarial prophylaxis, suppressed the onset of malarial symptoms but did not guard against contraction of the disease. Personnel leaving the Mediterranean Theater for the British Isles would discontinue atabrine therapy with subsequent development of clinical malaria when they arrived in the European Theater. As the British Isles were relatively free of the Anopheles mosquito, no malarial spread occurred from these human reservoirs. Table 68 shows the number of cases of malaria and admission rate per 1,000 per annum in the Western European Theater during the period July 1942 through June 1945.

Of other communicable diseases, mumps had the highest admission rate among Air Force personnel in Western Europe. There were no unusual epidemics of these communicable diseases throughout the whole period of operation in the European Theater. Table 69 shows the number of cases and rates per 1,000 per annum for mumps, measles (all kinds), scarlet fever, and epidemic

TABLE 68.--Number of Cases of Malaria and Admission Rate, July 1942– June 1945, Western European Theater

TABLE 69.-Admissions, Communicable Diseases, July 1943-June 1945, Air Forces in Western Europe

meningitis during the 3-year period. Cases of diphtheria occurred sporadically as did cases of rheumatic fever.

The death rate per 1,000 per annum, exclusive of battle casualties, for the war period was 3.8. Of the 2,734 deaths reported, 1,806 or 65.9 percent were due to noncombat aircraft accidents. As was always true of Air Force units, deaths due to aircraft accidents totaled more than deaths from all other causes. Of the diseases, deaths from heart disease were more frequent than any other, with thirty-four deaths reported from this cause during the period. Table 70 lists the causes of death in order of their frequency.

TABLE 70.-Principal Causes of Death-Disease and Injury-Air Forces in Western Europe, July 1942 Through June 1945

333

During the period 1 November 1942 to 31 December 1943, 1,293 individuals were reported wounded by enemy gunfire." A record was kept for each individual showing complete diagnosis, area of body struck, the type of wound. Wounds as a result of plane parts struck by missiles are included. The 1,293 individuals were struck by 1,304 missiles. Table No. 71 below shows that flak and cannon shells were responsible for approximately the same number of wounds. It is seen also that 51 percent of the total wounds were caused by TABLE 71.-Cause of Wounds (1 November 1942–31 December 1943)