Deployment of the 1st Area Medical Laboratory to South Korea in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2, occurred in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China.1 South Korea saw its first confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) case on January 20, 2020, when an infected woman from Wuhan, China arrived in S. Korea via Incheon International Airport.1 By mid-February, SARS-CoV-2 was rapidly spreading in the southern city of Daegu, S. Korea in proximity to three US Forces Korea (USFK) military installations. COVID-19 cases continued to increase during the following weeks, reaching a peak of nearly 1,000 confirmed cases per day by the end of February. As cases surged dramatically, over 28,000 USFK service members, family members, and Department of Defense (DoD) employees were at a risk of exposure to COVID-19. On February 24, clinicians diagnosed the first confirmed case in the USFK population, a 61 year-old widow of a retired service member. This individual, who experienced a mild illness, was the spouse of a retired US military veteran living in S. Korea. The retiree and his spouse both had access to military posts in S. Korea, and the spouse tested positive after she had been on one of the military bases in Area IV (Figure 1). The following day, USFK reported its first confirmed case in a service member, which was the triggering event for the 1st Area Medical Laboratory (AML) to deploy to S. Korea.

No Evidence of rVSV-Ebola Virus Vaccine Replication or Dissemination in the Sand Fly Phlebotomus papatasi.

Following vaccination with the live attenuated, recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus Indiana serotype Ebola virus (rVSV-EBOV) vaccine, persons may exhibit a transient vaccine-associated viremia. To investigate the potential for Old World sand flies to transmit this vaccine following feeding on a viremic person, we fed laboratory-reared Phlebotomus papatasi an artificial blood meal containing 7.2 log10 plaque-forming units of rVSV-EBOV. Replication or dissemination was not detected in the body or legs of any P. papatasi collected at seven (n = 75) or 15 (n = 75) days post-feed. These results indicate a low potential for rVSV-EBOV to replicate and disseminate in P. papatasi, a species whose geographic distribution ranges from Morocco to southwest Asia and as far north as southern Europe.

Outbreak of dermatitis linearis caused by Paederus ilsae and Paederus iliensis (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) at a military base in Iraq.

An outbreak of dermatitis linearis caused by Paederus iliensis (Coiffait) and Paederus ilsae (Bernhauer) occurred at Joint Base Balad in north central Iraq during 2007. It was the first reported incident of P iliensis in Iraq. Some Paederus species contain the vesicating chemical, pederin, which causes painful lesions when crushed on the skin. At this location, 20 Soldiers and Airmen sought medical treatment for skin blistering, most commonly affecting the neck and hands. All cases presented during May and June. Sampling for Paederus began in June after beetles were collected in an area where Soldiers had developed dermatitis and continued until October when no further beetles were collected. Paederus beetles were most likely flying in from areas surrounding the base, and were most common near the base's perimeter in close proximity to bright lights. Nighttime sampling showed that Paederus beetles were most active from one hour after sunset until midnight. Most of the military personnel affected were Soldiers who worked night shifts near bright lights. The occurrence of dermatitis linearis can largely be prevented by modifying the light sources that attract Paederus beetles.

Measuring effectiveness of deployed medical detachments.

The Army Medical Department's (AMEDD) efforts to provide on-target combat health and combat health service support to the Warfighter continue to evolve. Within the framework of modularizing the force, The AMEDD integrated the medical battalion (area support), medical battalion (evacuation), and medical logistics battalion into a single multifunctional medical battalion (MMB), approved by Headquarters, Department of the Army, to support the force commander on the ground. In 2005, the 61st MMB (Provisional), the first of its type, deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) 05-07 to provide levels I and II area medical support, ground evacuation, dental, optometry, combat and operational stress control, veterinary services, and preventive medicine. While deployed during OIF 05-07, the 61st MMB commander employed 5 preventive medicine medical detachments across the entire Iraqi Theater of Operations: the 898th Medical Detachment, 485th Medical Detachment, 255th Medical Detachment, 223rd Medical Detachment, and 903rd Medical Detachment. The number of medical detachments assigned to an MMB is situational and based upon the operational requirements of the combatant commander on the ground. The 61st MMB commander faced a unique challenge in evaluating mission success for the individual medical detachments, as each possessed slightly different capabilities as well as number and diversity of inspections covered within their respective area of responsibility. This article describes an extensive matrix, developed by the medical detachment commanders, to measure mission success and provide a useful tool for the MMB commander.