Medicine: Diseased Berlin

In July, dysentery spread through Berlin. The disease was carried by flies that swarmed in the wreckage, and struck an undernourished people: 705 died of it. In August came typhoid fever, which also flourishes on flies and filth. In the week of Aug. 18 there were 538 typhoid cases (up from 43 in July) and 50 deaths. (So far, no U.S. soldier has caught typhoid.) Last week the U.S. Army took on the immense job of immunizing all 900,000 civilians in its zone against typhoid and paratyphoid (similar to typhoid, but milder). In doing so, the U.S. hoped that the British, French and Russians, who have charge of the 2,100,000 other Berliners, would take the hint and do likewise.