trench fever

Infectious disease afflicting troops of all sides in World War I; first observed in troops on the Western Front December 1914. Conveyed by lice, it was characterized by a sudden fever lasting five or six days, after which the victim recovered with no apparent after-effects. The principal symptoms were headaches, pains in the legs, skin rash, and mild inflammation of the eyes but serious complications rarely occurred.

The disease initially puzzled doctors since although it was one of the greatest causes of sickness among troops serving in the war it had never been seen in civil communities, though it resembles a mild form of typhus. A second strain emerged 1917 in which the average duration of the fever became longer, and in 1918 there was a rise in the number of victims suffering relapses more or less regularly at intervals of a few days.