After suffering train derailments, defections, and outbreaks of dysentery and typhoid fever which killed two members, the Brazilian football club Santa Cruz returned from their Suicidal Tour (team pictured).

Dysentery, historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehydration.

Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi bacteria, also called Salmonella Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several days. This is commonly accompanied by weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, and mild vomiting. Some people develop a skin rash with rose colored spots. In severe cases, people may experience confusion. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Diarrhea may be severe, but is uncommon. Other people may carry it without being affected, but are still contagious. Typhoid fever is a type of enteric fever, along with paratyphoid fever. Salmonella enterica Typhi is believed to infect and replicate only within humans.

Santa Cruz Futebol Clube is a Brazilian professional football club based in Recife, Pernambuco, that competes in the Série D, the fourth tier of Brazilian football, and in the Campeonato Pernambucano, the top flight of the Pernambuco state football league.

The Suicidal Tour, also known as the Death Tour, took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube played a series of at least 26 friendly matches in six different cities across the North Region of Brazil from 2 January 1943 to 29 April 1943, seeking to raise funds. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club, including financial difficulties, the threat of German submarine attacks, and deaths.