title: Preventive Medicine and Its Role in the Special Operation Forces Medical Team.
abstract: Throughout history, Soldiers in wartime have been especially vulnerable to infectious diseases, which have devastated and decimated entire armies, causing suspension and, in some cases, complete cancellation of military operations. Dr. William Foege,1 a renowned Harvard epidemiologist, and his colleagues claim that throughout history, infectious diseases have killed more Soldiers than have weapons. Reality shows that it does not matter if your Soldiers had the best training available with the best equipment and top of the world intelligence: if your personnel get sick, they become more of a liability than an asset for a combat operation. This article presents some of the key findings that continue to affect our Special Operations Forces (SOF) and how the use of specifically designed new products can help in controlling short- and long-term consequences of infectious diseases.
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Agudelo
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D008889:Military Personnel; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000379:methods*