How Did The Civil War Affect Public Health
War has a profound effect on public health, directly accounts for millions of deaths annually worldwide. Many military and especially civilians die in the result of the war. War leads to long-term physical and psychological consequences and causes huge damage, often irreversible, to the environment.
The Civil War had a critical period in American history. It came at a time when medicine in the United States was behind Europe of very few advancements in terms of medical equipment, medicine, the treatment of injuries, and with no transportation to evacuate wounded soldiers from the fields. According to the report hundreds had died of thirst, shock, and exposure infections, disease, lying untended for days (Oshinsky 112). Most Civil War surgeons …show more content…
All the field camps were very unhealthy and the soldiers were living in bad conditions. They were not able to bathe or even went weeks without a shower. They had poor diets and the water they drunk was already contaminated. Bugs was another problem during Civil War who would carry diseases. Exposure turned many into pneumonia and other ailments. Poor hygiene in camps causes the disease to spread from soldier to soldier by contaminated food, water, and mosquitos. Fields hospitals treated large amount wounded soldiers which all kept together in unsanitary, poorly ventilated conditions which also contributed to spread of infections. Civil War surgeons did not understand germs, they had to work without knowledge about infections how they were carried and spread, and without drugs to treat it (Oshinsky 97). They performed surgeries without wearing gloves, sterilizing their tools, used bare fingers to inspect wounds, and simply wiped instruments clean using their aprons. The risk from surgery was great, resulting in high death rates from infections. For example, surgeons did not know that a pus from the wound was a sign of infection, they performed a fluid transfer from one person to a people who did not have a pus in their wounds. Because of these practices, surgeons spread infections from person to person which cause the most harm. Many surgeons also got sick while performing the surgeries because they were not immune to the diseases that were
The Civil War had a critical period in American history. It came at a time when medicine in the United States was behind Europe of very few advancements in terms of medical equipment, medicine, the treatment of injuries, and with no transportation to evacuate wounded soldiers from the fields. According to the report hundreds had died of thirst, shock, and exposure infections, disease, lying untended for days (Oshinsky 112). Most Civil War surgeons …show more content…
All the field camps were very unhealthy and the soldiers were living in bad conditions. They were not able to bathe or even went weeks without a shower. They had poor diets and the water they drunk was already contaminated. Bugs was another problem during Civil War who would carry diseases. Exposure turned many into pneumonia and other ailments. Poor hygiene in camps causes the disease to spread from soldier to soldier by contaminated food, water, and mosquitos. Fields hospitals treated large amount wounded soldiers which all kept together in unsanitary, poorly ventilated conditions which also contributed to spread of infections. Civil War surgeons did not understand germs, they had to work without knowledge about infections how they were carried and spread, and without drugs to treat it (Oshinsky 97). They performed surgeries without wearing gloves, sterilizing their tools, used bare fingers to inspect wounds, and simply wiped instruments clean using their aprons. The risk from surgery was great, resulting in high death rates from infections. For example, surgeons did not know that a pus from the wound was a sign of infection, they performed a fluid transfer from one person to a people who did not have a pus in their wounds. Because of these practices, surgeons spread infections from person to person which cause the most harm. Many surgeons also got sick while performing the surgeries because they were not immune to the diseases that were