Abstract

Since the Classical age, humankind has had to cope with petechial typhus, especially during wars and famine. Epidemics chiefly occurred during sieges and followed the paths of armies, when infected soldiers transmitted the infection to populations with whom they came into contact. Winter exacerbated the disease due to the use of unhygienic woollen clothes that allowed the spread of pediculosis. It was only in the early 18th century that petechial typhus outbreaks diminished thanks to the use of Marseille soap and to the new custom of changing clothing at bedtime. In many military campaigns, deaths from typhus were higher than those due to war wounds: recent studies established that the French defeat during the Napoleonic Russian military campaign has to be attributed more to typhus than to the military superiority of the enemy. Indeed, the contagion is estimated to have affected 80% of the 600,000 troops involved. The role of Pediculus as a vehicle of infection established in 1909 by Charles Nicolle, microbiological isolation performed by Howard Ricketts and Stanislaus von Prowazck, and finally the advent of antibiotic therapy, all laid the basis for controlling the disease in the 20th century.