Cause Investigation of the Outbreak of Typhoid in Iran during 1320-1324 Hijri Shamsi

Abstract

Typhoid or Hasbe has been addressed as "Motbeqe" in historical medicine books. This disease has a long history in medicine; Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi described it for the first time. The number of Typhoid patients was limited before World War II and the occupation of Iran, but after the beginning of war and Iran's occupation, this disease spread for both internal and external reasons. The most important external factor was the influx of Polish immigrants to Iran, for whom a variety of infectious diseases including typhoid were prevalent, transferring this disease to the Iranians in three direct, indirect and mechanical ways. The internal factor has a direct relationship with the public health problems. Safe drinking water was not available for most of the people, and a large number of Iranians did not have proper nutrition and enough ability to resist diseases especially Typhoid, which was because of the famine mainly due to the presence of allies. The government made a lot of efforts to tackle Typhoid and other diseases, and created new health facilities in most cities, but a large number of people were died of the massive outbreak of this disease, occupation of some hospitals by the allies, hoarding and scarcity of drugs. In this paper, the causes of Typhoid outbreak during the years of Iran occupation in World War II (1320-1324) are investigated through a descriptive method along with analysis and data collection of library documents.