Description of the Disease

Question: The Impact of Typhus on Napoleon’s Defeat During the War of 1812?

Student: Savelii Nevzorov

Lecturer: Duncan Mclean, PhD

Course: HSS383/583 Plagues & Pestilence: Disease & Historical Change: Advanced Topic in Public Policy

Date Submitted: 15/12/2016

Word Length:5056

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Introduction

The study of history is a tedious and time consuming process. History is woven of the intricacies of numbers of different events, study of which must be meticulous and detailed, as it is the only way that allows us to adequately interpret the events of the past. It helps us not only to learn about the certain events that happened before our time, but also to draw definite conclusions that may change our perception of the future. However, it is important to remember that as the life itself, history is a multifactorial process. Consequently, the larger historical event, the more possible factors could have affect its development. For instance, was the US military intervention the only cause for Hitler’s Nazism defeat? Or, for example, was the Western liberal radio propaganda of 1980s the main reason for the fall of the Soviet Union? In both cases, the right answer is “no”, yet both these factors did contribute to those events to happen. By analogy, history is not a journey from point A to point B, rather it is a clockwork mechanism, where each gear is essential for the clocks to function.

One of the most famous examples of such a multifaceted event is the war of 1812. The outcomes of that war affected not only the fate of Russia and France, but also the lives of the most part of European states, as they were directly or indirectly dependent on Napoleonic France. It seemed that nothing could stop Bonaparte’s Grand Armee from its victorious march, however, the military campaign against the Russian Empire begun by the invincible commander ended by unprecedented defeat. About 600000 people participated in the initial invasion to Russia, however, only a few thousand soldiers and officers managed to get back to their home.

The war of 1812 ended by the collapse of Napoleon´s rulership, and caused radical changes in the entire political situation in Europe. Napoleon invaded Russia planning to have a quick victory, but eventually has been destroyed by set of failures and disasters. Of course, there were several factors that affected Napoleon's failure during the war, however, as this course mainly focuses on the role of different diseases in frameworks of historical events, this paper will consider epidemic typhus in Napoleon’s army as its point of research.

 

Description of the Disease

 

Typhus is not something new to humankind, however, during long period of time it was unknown what exactly causes it, as well as how to treat the disease properly. The term "typhus" appeared in 1760 and was originated from the Greek word “typhos”, which in translation to English language means “smoke”. This term was primarily used to describe the state of stupor, and the lapse of reason that are peculiar symptoms of Typhus. For a long time it was believed that typhus is a viral disease, since it's nature was unknown, so was not the way of its transmission from one carrier to another.

Scientists managed to understand and study the nature of the disease only at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, Howard Ricketts, who has studied the bacteria causing typhus, died in a result of self-infection. In honor of his discoveries and services to the international scientific community, the bacterium was named after Ricketts – Rickettsia.

Clinical manifestations of the disease are determined by Rickettsias' ability to grow and multiply inside the blood vessels. Infected cells are separating from the vessels, then causing tissue necrosis. The results of numerous tissue death are red rashes on the body of the patient.

The incubation period of the disease takes 6 to 16 days, the initial symptoms are chills, fever, and headache. Since these symptoms are peculiar to many diseases (particularly viral ones), at this stage the disease is hard to be recognized. By the middle of the first week after the infection a red rash starts to appear on the body. At first, the rash appears on the chest and abdomen, but later spreads to the arms, legs, and in rare cases to a patient's face. Initially, the rash is temporary and disappears when pressed on the skin, but over time it becomes permanent. Also, there is a profound prostration, bronchial disorders, as well as backache appear. Then begins the strong rush of blood to the face, which makes a person to look besotted. In addition to the strong pressure on the patient's physical condition, typhoid negatively impacts mental health, leading to insomnia, increased nervousness and mental dullness. By the end of the first week of the disease the patient may fall into delirium. Duration of the disease takes an average of about 14 days, in severe cases can lead to stupor, which goes into a coma, leading to renal failure, and eventually death.

Recovery is characterized primarily by the rapid decline in body temperature (lysis), as well as weakness and depression. However, the death rate from typhus in many respects depends on the person's age. For children (under 15 years old), mortality tends to zero, however, increases with increasing age of the person in a percentage from 10 to 100% probability of death, which increases according to age. For today, due to advances in medicine, the designation of the required treatment, as well as the emergence of appropriate medicines and antibiotics, the risk of death is much lower than ever before.(Conlon, J. p. 1-2)

Distributor of typhus is Pediculus humanus corporis, also known as clothing lice, the cootie or "grayback". After hatching from the eggs (called "nits"), a louse immediately begin to feed. Lice preferably eat during the night, when the carrier is asleep, but they can also eat in the daytime. The adult louse lives about thirty 30 days, actively feeding, and allocating a relatively large portions dark red excrement. That the excrement of lice to carry typhus. When lice drunk blood of a human who carries typhus in its active stage(and sometimes even a few days after the disease is gone), Rickettsia penetrates the louse and begin their active development inside. Rickettsia appears in the louse's feces in about 5 days after the first meal of infected blood. Through entering of the feces into human blood the infection is transferred from one carrier to another. It is proved that the infection is not found in the salivary glands of the lice, thus it cannot be transmitted through the bite, however, lice bite is an open sore, which may get an infection. At the same time, the louse has all chances to die from the infection, however, if it manages to recover, it becomes a permanent carrier of the virus until the end of its life. (Ibid, 3-4)