Disease, Rats & Flies, Oh My! - Zoe Lougee

Zoe Lougee, Staff Reporter

Thursday February 19, 2015

Gallipoli Trenches

    

     Many soldiers in Gallipoli trenches are dying because of horrid diseases spread by rats and flies. The rats had started to eat the rotting leftover food, but have moved on to the stored food, spreading disease to the soldiers (“The Conditions”).

Decaying Corpses 

     The rats have also started eating the eyes and decaying flesh of the soldiers’ dead comrades, and spread disease that way (“The Conditions”).

    There is also another thing that likes to spread disease; Flies. Not only were the flies annoying, but they spent half their time on rotten food, and the other half of their time on open wounds and decaying corpses (“The Conditions”). This brought lots of maggots. In case you didn’t know what maggots are, they are soft-bodied legless larva, especially of a fly (“The Conditions”).

    Many people died of this disease brought on by rats or flies, and because of that,

No Mans Land

many truces were called so soldiers could bury their dead, but 

most of the time the bodies were left to rot in no man’s land (“The 

Conditions”).

    I assume you’re wondering on what those diseases are. One of these diseases is Dysentery. Dysentery is basically an infection of the intestines (“The Conditions”). Typhoid is another disease which is ‘’an infectious bacteria that causes red spots on the chest and severe intestinal irritation” (Typhoid). There is also a disease that, because of long exposure to mud or cold water, results in a painful condition of the feet; this is known as Trench Foot (Trench Foot). A highly contagious disease known as Trench Fever is transmitted by lice, ticks, or mites (Trench Fever). These animals that spread these diseases has cause hundreds of deaths in the Battle of Gallipoli.