Global Security provides up-to-date US military news online. It is a useful website for studying casualties of past wars and to try and avoid such casualties in future wars (na'u zubillahi min zaalik). The other useful website is the CIA website that has health data and statistics of all the world's communities.
Doctors have served as military personnels in times of war and preparedness for war is something we don't teach at medical schools. For our students who wish to assist in war-torn regions of this globe, I would suggest that you read on the causes of past wars and try to understand how we can possibly avoid conflicts and any sort of war. Any war is likely to cause injury and death,. Death of innocent victims is not an excuse for medical staff to sit back, turn a blind eye, and not express themselves publicly.
I will honestly say, that we actually don't need any war today. Wars are a thing of the past, avenues of the past, vents for those who never learned and never want to exit the Dark Ages nor leave their dirty actions altogether. Those who committed wars are hyenas and dingos, definitely not humans We are intelligent human beings and we have brains that make our actions humane. We should fully utilise our brains and be able to cap tension from arising, crack conflicts from striking and halt wars from happening. The only avenue to save this world from further rot is to listen to academics, the public at large and the poor masses (the bottom billion have-nots). Communication is a bilateral process; war is single strike.
World War I (WWI) commenced on 6 April 1917 and ended on 11 November 1918. It was localised to Europe. Hence, Malaya was not directly affected but there are evidences from narrations communicated to the author (even though antibiotics were still undiscovered), especially the field of professional medical training.
World War II (WWII) commenced on 7 December 1941 and ended abruptly on 14 August 1945 with the bombing of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This war occurred globally and affected many countries worldwide. Malaya suffered terribly during WWII when it came under the Japanese Occupation. We can still hear many WWII stories from Malayan survivors of that horrific era. The WWII museums also depict the artifacts and happenings of this ugly indescribable war. But we should not forget, that the first antibiotic, penicillin, came into use almost at the close of WWII.
Since antibiotics only became commonplace after WWII, one should expect stories about infant deaths, childhood deaths, teenage deaths and early deaths of young adults in our medical history, prior to 1945 . The medical situation improved after WWII. WWII was in fact a turning point for medicine. The many drugs we see today are postwar discoveries and have rather short trialling periods. Some drugs are not fully tested for long-term effects and their safety status remain unknown to doctors and patients.
Sources:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/index.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/early20cent-ops.htm
