Bring on the beer

In the "Outlander" series, alcohol is used by Clare to clean wounds.

So how far back does this go? PDF

The earliest written records of wound management dateto Sumerian carvings more than 4,000 years ago. The carv-ings describe three treatment strategies: washing, makingplaster, and bandaging.3Wounds were washed with beer orhot water and then bandaged with poultices...

 well, it is better than Donkey dung, used by Egyptians...

a book about Infectious disease in WWII can be found here.

A lot of these diseases are rare and others, such as dengue and Malaria, continue to be a problem.

But I wasn't aware that Sandfly fever (AKA Baghdad boil) was a major health problem among WWII troops in Sicily.