Health Surveillance NATO Conference 26-28 June 2012, Munich
Military Deployment Health Surveillance has gained significant importance throughout the last years. After recent experiences in the African theatres as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan the timely monitoring of health threats to soldiers in mission is of crucial importance for their ability to fight as well as for their wellbeing in theatre and quality of life back home. Real- or near real time surveillance techniques enable military commanders to react on e.g. infectious diseases’ outbreaks and to manage them accordingly. Modern surveillance techniques do not only identify threats caused by artificially released infectious agents but also support the management of naturally occurring events like the SARS or H1/N 1 flu outbreak in the past. During the last years laboratory based surveillance has been amended by approaches of syndromic surveillance. Meanwhile both complement each other, are implemented in the force health protection strategies of various countries and are based on an international civil-military expert network. On the NATO level the need for military deployment health surveillance expertise has led to the implementation of a Deployment Health Surveillance Capability (DHSC) in Munich, which is an integral part of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (MILMED COE).
