Public Health Policies and Practices of the Ottoman Empire with Special Reference to the Gallipoli Campaign.

OBJECTIVE: To review the selected historiographic and contemporary literature that examined the Ottoman public health practices and policies with special reference to the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. To date, no work has been published surrounding the Ottoman public health policies and responses during the battle of Gallipoli.

METHODS: A historiographic methodology was used to examine relevant primary and secondary publications using ten academic electronic databases.

RESULTS: The literature discussed pre-war Hapsburg efforts to improve the Ottoman medical infrastructure, the activities of military medical students and units at Gallipoli, quarantine and vaccination procedures, and general medical issues throughout the empire during the war.

CONCLUSION: Access to the official Turkish archives and translating relevant official documents into English are warranted. This represents an opportunity for military and public health historians to examine and identify relevant public health practices and policies that the Ottoman Empire implemented during the First World War and, in particular, the Gallipoli campaign.