The work was dangerous - feeders risked contracting typhus despite being vaccinated. Each wooden box held 400-800 lice that would feed through a screen pressed against the person's flesh. Women ...

A US soldier demonstrating DDT-hand spraying equipment. DDT was used to control the spread of typhus-carrying lice during WWII. | Centre for Disease Control/Public Domain Captain Douglas Peterkin ...

One of the diseases that ravaged Europe during WWII was epidemic typhus. This disease was nearly forgotten until the war in Ukraine in 2022, which caused massive population displacement.

Typhus is at present no menace to the U.S. But it might conceivably become the dreaded scourge it is in Europe. The heavy U.S. typhus season was just beginning last week, and the best guess was ...