VD: The Australian Army's experience of sexually transmitted diseases during the twentieth century

Sexually transmitted diseases, for centuries lumped together as ‘Venereal Disease’, or ‘VD’ for short, have always marched in lock-step with soldiers from all armies wherever they have served.

During the twentieth century at least 125,000 Australian soldiers contracted VD while serving in overseas deployments — the equivalent of six World War I infantry divisions.

Until the advent of penicillin in the mid-1940s, the two most common and most devastating sexually transmitted diseases were g...