Death rates from syphilis world war 1?

Answer 1

It takes a long time to die from the effects of syphillis, often several decades after exposure. Even then frequently death results from secondary complications caused or exacerbated by the disease. So, if you're asking how many got the disease during the war and died from it during the war, probably zero. I do not know that any statistics were kept as to the origin of the disease in patients who later died from it or its effects. I can say that so far as the American Expeditionary Force goes, their rate of genito-urinary infection was probably the lowest in US history. This was directly due to the determination of General Pershing to bring the boys back home as pure in body as he got them from their mothers. When US troops began debarking from their transports at French ports such as Cherbourg, the brothels were immediately closed and MPs placed on guard in front, despite the immediate protests of the mayor that this was horrible for business, and barbaric. Just as soon as possible the American troops were on trains to the middle of nowhere, where they were billeted in barns in the countryside around little villages, in as remote locations as could be found, all to limit just as much as possible any chance for amorous adventures and contracting the Love Bug. Very, very few of the Doughboys got to see Paree. They entered France through small ports, lived in barns in the wilderness until they went to the front, and if they lived through that, for most it was straight to Camp Lucky Strike at Le Havre (where the most rigorous exertions were made to curtail commercial love and the concommitant Carnal Flu), and then back home. Doughboys had a much better chance of getting the clap from domestic prostitutes near Army camps in the states, and any who managed to pull that off were court martialed and severely punished for damaging government property.