Dysentery

Dysentery (formerly known as the bloody flux or simply flux) is the term for severe diarrhea that is associated with blood in the feces.

Dysentery has many causes including cancer but is typically associated with infection caused by the ingestion of food or water containing micro-organisms which cause a disease in which inflammation of the intestines affects the body significantly.

The American soldiers and Marines trapped on the Baatan Peninsula often dealt with cases of dysentery. It often proved fatal. The embedded reporter from the Associated Press listed dysentery as one of several diseases plaguing the men, and cited the situation as one more example of the failure of the Roosevelt Administration.