Soldiers in operational environments are exposed to a variety of chemical substances. During deployment, they often move very rapidly from one “environment” to the other. Therefore ambient monitoring is very difficult and its outcome very complex to assess. Just as occupational and environmental assessments are becoming more common in industry, biomonitoring of chemical substances and their met...

Belgian soldiers have participated in Crisis Response Operations since the early nineties. The first deployments took place in the Balkans. These real life operations led to health problems that looked quite similar to experiences in other Task Forces sent abroad but the pattern did not fit into any disease diagnostic. Hence, new descriptive labels were invented; e.g. the “Cambodia syndrome” in...

BACKGROUND The definition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) underwent substantial changes in the 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). How this will affect estimates of prevalence, whether clinical utility has been improved, and how many individuals who meet symptom criteria according to the previous definition will not meet new criteria is un...

AIM This study aims to investigate the seroprevalence of HAV immunity among Iranian soldiers and determine whether vaccination should be given to military draftees. BACKGROUND Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is highly contagious in individuals living in crowded conditions such as military centers. To the best of our knowledge, there are limited data about HAV prevalence among Iranian soldiers. PATI...

Health status of soldiers affects their quality of life and combat readiness. The aim of the research was to explore the differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between combat ready und unready soldiers and to what extent are clinically assessed combat readiness and psychological dimensions related to self-reported HRQoL. The study included 402 consecutively selected soldiers aged...

We used microsatellite data to estimate levels of inbreeding in four species of solitary gall thrips that are in the same clade as the six species with soldier castes. Three of the four species were highly inbred (Fis 0.54-0.68), and the other apparently mated randomly (Fis near zero). These estimates, combined with previous data from species with soldiers, suggest that inbreeding is a pervasiv...

This study had two aims: 1. To examine whether soldiers who participated in Early Group Intervention (EGI) would show less distress and better functioning and physical health than soldiers who did not participate in EGI, and 2. To examine the contribution of the intervention to participants with repressive coping style. The sample comprised 166 male reserve soldiers who fought in the Second Leb...

During April 2011-March 2012, we retrospectively reviewed medical records for South Korea soldiers to assess the etiology and epidemiology of acute viral lower respiratory tract infections. Adenovirus was the most commonly identified virus (63.2%) and the most common cause of pneumonia (79.3%) and hospitalization (76.6%); 3 soldiers died of adenovirus-related illness.

To evaluate the presence and extension of West Nile virus where French soldiers are stationed in Africa, specific antibody prevalence was determined by using ELISA and Western blot. Among 245 horses living in close proximity to the soldiers, seroprevalence was particularly high in Chad (97%) and Senegal (92%).

PURPOSE To characterize noncombat injury/illness, determine changes in physical fitness, and evaluate the influence of these changes on medical resource utilization by National Guard (NG) Soldiers. METHODS Fifty-four Soldiers from the Arizona NG completed pre- and postdeployment fitness testing. Additionally, individual deployment medical records were inventoried. RESULTS The majority of no...