title: Prevention of infectious diseases during military deployments: a review of the French armed forces strategy.
abstract: Military personnel in operations have always paid a high toll to infections. In the 21st century some of these diseases still cause outbreaks with significant morbidity and impact on deployments. The new configuration of the French Armed Forces requires the permanent preparedness of deployable units. During deployments, soldiers are at least exposed to the infectious diseases that are observed in travellers, but with a potentially severe impact for the combatting strengths and a risk for cancelation or failure of the operational durability. The most common disabling infections during military deployments are faeco-oral transmitted diseases including diarrhoea. Preventing infectious diseases during deployments is of great concern and the French medical service has established a strategy based on different components; risk assessment and preparation, immunizations, protective measures and chemoprophylaxis, health education, health surveillance, outbreak investigations and medical tracking. In this review, the authors present the context of deployment of the French Armed Forces, the main health risks they are exposed to and develop the key points of the force health protection strategy, focused on infections related to military deployments.
authors: Centre d'épidémiologie et de santé publique des armées, Marseille, France; Ecole du Val-de-Grace, Paris, France. Electronic address: r.michel4@wanadoo.fr.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Michel
authors: Centre médical des armées de Nîmes-Orange-Laudun, Antenne vétérinaire de Nîmes, France.
authors: J P
authors: JP
authors: Demoncheaux
authors: Centre d'épidémiologie et de santé publique des armées, Marseille, France.
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Créach
authors: Hôpital d'instruction des armées Bégin, Saint Mandé, France; Ecole du Val-de-Grace, Paris, France.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Rapp
authors: Ecole du Val-de-Grace, Paris, France; Hôpital d'instruction des armées Laveran, Marseille, France.
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Simon
authors: Direction centrale du Service de santé des armées, Vincennes, France.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Haus-Cheymol
authors: Ecole du Val-de-Grace, Paris, France; Direction centrale du Service de santé des armées, Vincennes, France.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Migliani
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel; D062486:Public Health Surveillance; D014612:Vaccines
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines
keywords: Infectious diseases; Military; Prevention