Infectious diseases during the First World War in Gozo

Abstract

Laws and regulations against the spread of infectious diseases have been with us since the time of the Knights of Malta. In modern times the main law is the Ordinance of 1908, Chapter 36, which continues to be updated till this very day. These regulations were in full force during various epidemics like the Spanish flu in 1918 which killed more people than the Great War. In Gozo 2539 people were reported to have been affected and 81 of them died. Other epidemics during the Great War period included a typhoid epidemic which occured a couple of years before the flu epidemic and a small epidemic of malarial fever which was imported from Salonika. These were hard times for Gozo and medicine was not yet prepared to deal with these dangerous and serious illnesses.