Malaria Epidemics in Refugees During Armed Conflict
Abstract: Refugees displaced from their usual residence by military conflict may generate malaria epidemics when moving into endemic areas. Examples from the 1980s include Khmer refugees from Cambodia into Thailand and Afghan refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan. In both cases, civilians with little malaria experience were exposed to both P. vivax and P. falciparum malaria. […]
Australian Defence Force’ Role in Regional Health Security: Missions Defined by Infectious Diseases
G D Shanks ‘God alone would not have sent such an epidemic.’ Samoan Chief during New Zealand Samoan Epidemic Commission hearings 1919.1 History shows that infectious diseases often determined the ability of armed forces to maintain soldiers on campaign and sailors in ships. Prior to the industrialisation of warfare in World War I, disease casualties […]
The Australian Army’s Two ‘Traditional’ Diseases: Gonorrhea and Syphilis — A Military-Medical History During the Twentieth Century
Ian Howie-Willis Abstract Two sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) marched in lockstep with the Australian Army in most, if not all, its overseas campaigns during the twentieth century. Gonorrhoea and syphilis, bacterial infections spread most commonly through sexual intercourse. This article illustrates through reference to the Australian Army’s major overseas deployments; from the Boer War at […]
The ability of seasonal and pandemic influenza to disrupt military operations
Abstract Influenza is one of the few infectious diseases that is able to disrupt military operations quickly. Although the extreme mortality rates seen during the pandemic of 1918-19 when tens of thousands of soldiers died has never been repeated (for as yet unclear reasons), illness rates alone make influenza of great military importance. Seasonal influenza […]
Hepatitis B vaccination in the Royal Australian Navy
Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander A.G Robertson RAN The Naval Health Services are responsible for the health care of all RAN personnel. The Naval Health Services1 mandate includes the provision of preventive as well as curative health services with a primary aim of ensuring that a high percentage of Naval personnel are fit for operational duties, especially for […]
Tularaemia
Sue Sharpe Tularaemia is caused by the intracellular pathogen Francisella tularensis, a small, pleomorphic, aerobic, Gram negative coccobacillus which requires a complex cysteine-containing growth medium for laboratory cultures. Capsules may form in tissues. The pathogen is not highly heat resistant but will survive freezing and drying. It survives well in the environment – especially in […]