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RefWorks
Reference Manager
BibTeX
Zotero
EndNote
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Shanks GD , 2019. Epidemiological isolation as an infection mortality risk factor in US soldiers from late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Am J Trop Med Hyg 101: 980–984.
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Why Did Black Soldiers Historically Have More Pneumonia Than White Soldiers in the U.S. Army?
G. Dennis Shanks
G. Dennis Shanks
Australian Defence Force Malaria and Infectious Disease Institute, Enoggera, Australia;
School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Search for other papers by G. Dennis Shanks in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Search for other papers by G. Dennis Shanks in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
ABSTRACT.
Black U.S. Army soldiers had four times as much bacterial pneumonia as White U.S. Army soldiers during both the U.S. Civil War and World War I (WWI). Pneumonia case fatality rates were a third greater in Black soldiers during the U.S. Civil War, but were the same between the racial groups by WWI. During WWII, the use of antibiotics decreased bacterial pneumonia mortality rates 100-fold and apparently erased racial differences. Similar differences in bacterial pneumonia rates by racial group were observed in African colonial soldiers of the French and British Armies during WWI. Pneumonia rates in Indian, Filipino, and Puerto Rican soldiers suggested that genetic polymorphisms were not a decisive factor determining Black pneumonia mortality. Postmeasles pneumonias did not suggest an immune deficit in Black soldiers. Geographic focus of pneumonia in Black soldiers from the southern U.S. states and other tropical regions raises the possibility that increased bacterial pneumonia rates were related indirectly to malaria infections. Malaria remains a difficult-to-measure but potentially important mortality risk factor in pneumonia.
- Supplemental Materials (PDF 55.904 KB)
Author Notes
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Defence Force or the U.S. Department of Defense. Racial identifications used were historical constructs of the time and are not meant to be interpreted in any derogatory way.
Author’s addresses: G. Dennis Shanks, Australian Defence Force Malaria and Infectious Disease Institute, Enoggera, Australia, and School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, E-mail: dennis.shanks@defence.gov.au.
ProCite
RefWorks
Reference Manager
BibTeX
Zotero
EndNote
-
1.
Vaughn VC , Vaughn HF , Palmer GT , 1922. The Pneumonias: Epidemiology and Public Health. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 107.
-
2.
Woodward JJ , Smart C , Otis GA , Huntington DL , 1879. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861–65): Part 1: Medical History. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
-
3.
Ireland MW , 1920. Influenza and Pneumonias: Report of the Surgeon General of the US Army. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2010–2178.
-
4.
Kneeland Y & Coates JB Internal Medicine in World War II. Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 26–31.
-
5.
Ireland MW , 1918. Special Diseases: Pneumonias: Report of the Surgeon General of the US Army. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 175–188.
-
6.
Mitchell TJ , Smith GM , 1931. Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War. London, UK: Imperial War Museum.
-
7.
Government of India , 1918. Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner of the Government of India. Calcutta, India: Superintendent Government Printing.
-
8.
Borrel A , 1920. Pneumonie et tuberculose chez les troupes noires. Ann Inst Pasteur (Paris) 34: 105–148.
-
9.
Eyre J , Lowe E , 1919. Autumn influenza epidemic 1918 as it affected the NZEF in the United Kingdom. Lancet 193: 553–560.
-
10.
Smallman-Raynor M , Cliff A , 2004. Pan America: military mobilization and disease in the United States. Smallman-Raynor M, Cliff A, eds. War Epidemics: An Historical Geography of Infectious Diseases in Military Conflict and Civil Strife, 1850–2000. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 349–413.
-
11.
Hallowell NP , 1897. The Negro as a Soldier in the War of the Rebellion. Boston, MA: Little and Brown, 47.
-
12.
Chamberlain WP , 1917. Demography in so far as it relates to the vital statistics of armies. Mil Surg 40: 37–44.
-
13.
Heffron R , 1939. Pneumonia, with Special Reference to Pneumococcus Lobar Pneumonia. London, UK: The Commonwealth Fund.
-
14.
Hogben L , Johnstone MM , Mullings D , 1947. The medical ethnography of the second World War. Br J Soc Med 1: 251–275.
-
15.
Shanks GD , 2019. Epidemiological isolation as an infection mortality risk factor in US soldiers from late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Am J Trop Med Hyg 101: 980–984.
-
16.
Taubenberger JK , Kash JC , Morens DM , 2019. The 1918 influenza pandemic: 100 years of questions answered and unanswered. Sci Transl Med 11: eaau5485.
-
17.
Økland H , Mamelund S-E , 2019. Race and 1918 influenza pandemic in the United states: a review of the literature. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16: 2487.
-
18.
Malard M , 1936. Pneumonia and tuberculosis among the Senegalese riflemen at La Roenelle. Rev Service Sante Militar 104: 595–639.
-
19.
Cartwright AP , 1971. Doctors of the Mines. Cape Town, South Africa: Purnell.
-
20.
Kho S , Qotrunnada L , Leonardo L , Andries B , Wardani PA , Fricot A , Henry B , Hardy D , Margyaningsih NI , Apriyanti D , 2021. Hidden biomass of intact malaria parasites in the human spleen. N Engl J Med 384: 2067–2069.
-
21.
Shanks GD , Hay SI , Bradley DJ , 2008. Malaria’s indirect contribution to all-cause mortality in the Andaman Islands during the colonial era. Lancet Infect Dis 8: 564–570.
-
22.
Christophers SR , 1912. Malaria in the Andamans. Calcutta, India: Superintendent Government Printing.
| Past two years | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1719 | 1361 | 26 |
| Full Text Views | 362 | 50 | 0 |
| PDF Downloads | 118 | 28 | 0 |