Military medicine
-
British and Australian medical teams working in Northern Iraq in 1991 providing primary care to refugees and the war wounded were subjected to a descriptive retrospective survey, 5 weeks after arriving in Iraq. The aim was to document different rates of diarrhea in British and Australian troops. The British, who were not taking daily doxycycline and did not enforce a plate- and hand-washing routine, experienced higher rates of diarrhea (69% of British troops compared with 36% of Australian troops), which was more severe and of a longer duration (p < 0.001) and resulted in twice as many days being lost (p < 0.001) in spite of the British team being half the size of the Australian contingent, and the region having enteropathogens with a high rate of antibiotic resistance. Vigorous hand- and plate-washing routines along with doxycycline prophylaxis appear to significantly reduce incapacitation from diarrhea in this military setting and have an important implication for operational effectiveness.
-
The most serious complication of sickle cell trait (SCT) is sudden death during exertion. SCT often remains unrecognized in the 2.5 million African Americans affected. ⋯ There have been no cases reported in soldiers beyond basic training. In the case presented, a soldier with 3 years of military service succumbed to SCT-associated sudden death during physical fitness testing.