Surveillance for Respiratory Infections in U.S. Military Populations Using Classic and Novel Diagnostic Techniques

摘要

Military populations are historically susceptible to outbreaks of acute respiratory disease. These epidemics disrupt training schedules, place a heavy burden on the military medical system, cause significant economic losses, and ultimately impact troop readiness and mission accomplishment. The U.S. Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) has provided population-based viral respiratory surveillance in select U.S. military populations since 1996. Although classical methods of diagnosis (culture) are the gold standard, these techniques are laborious and time-consuming. Novel diagnostic techniques were recently explored, and they show promise for providing rapid results for large numbers of specimens. This paper discusses the Naval Health Research Center's (NHRC) Respiratory Disease Laboratory; the NHRC respiratory infection surveillance network; the extension of surveillance to remote settings, such as combatant naval vessels and the Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand in 2003; the laborious and time-consuming nature of classic laboratory processing; the requirements of the ideal diagnostic test; and new diagnostic techniques, such as molecular polymerase chain reaction (PRC) and Triangulation Identification for the Genetic Evaluation of Risks (TIGER).