Desert warfare and disease

A review is given of the incidence of thirst, heat-stroke and disease amongst armed forces in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world from earliest times until the present day. The fragmentary nature of the available evidence reflects not only the scant attention paid to military hygiene and sanitation before the 20th century, but also to the lack of precise records. There is a positive correlation between disease and incompetent leadership in warfare. In the present century the most important diseases of armies in the desert have been malaria, dysentery, typhoid (enteric) fever, typhus and scurvy.