Typhus Monologue

The end of World War I saw the worst typhus epidemic in history, with over 30 million cases and approximately three million deaths spanning from Russia to Poland. The problem was only heightened during World War II, however, as the disease continued to spread throughout war-torn Jewish ghettos that consisted of unsanitary, harsh conditions. The Germans, already occupied with fighting the Red Army, didn’t have time to worry about an additional complication and were growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of vaccine progression. Eventually, Doctor Rudolf Weigl was recruited in an attempt to find a viable solution. The louse transmission of typhus had already been proved during World War I, when French Scientists Charles Nicolle observed how the hospital admission workers often fell ill, but the nurses who only dealt with stripped and washed patients never did (Allen, 2014). Nicolle realized that the carrier for the disease was being transported through the clothing, and conducted multiple tests involving lice in order to confirm it. Essentially, when lice bite and attach themselves to the skin, they begin to feed by poking a tiny tube called a stylet through the outermost layer,

He developed a method that involved scientists dissecting the infected lice and harvesting their guts in which the bacteria grew and multiplied (How Scientists Created A Typhus Vaccine In A ‘Fantastic Laboratory,’ 2014). The louse gut was then put into a pot and mixed with a variety of chemicals, successfully creating the first typhus vaccine. At one point, Weigl himself was infected with the disease after accidentally sticking himself with a broken petri dish that had been in contact with typhus germs (Allen, 2014). Throughout his infection he continued to collect date, encouraging his wife to conduct experiments on him by placing lice-filled matchboxes on his body to feed on his blood at different stages of the illness (Allen,