Respiratory Diseases among U.S. Military Personnel:
Countering Emerging Threats
Gregory C. Gray,* Johnny D. Callahan,*† Anthony W. Hawksworth,* Carol A.
Fisher,‡ and Joel C. Gaydos‡
*Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California, USA; †Naval Medical Center, San
Diego, California, USA; and ‡Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC,
USA
Figure 1. Hospitalization
rates for acute respiratory disease per 10,000 persons, 1991 to 1994: U.S. army recruits
vs. young adults in U.S. nonfederal hospitals. U.S. army recruit estimates are converted
from percentage febrile acute respiratory disease rates per 100 trainee-week figures (8). On average, recruits were 19 years old. U.S. national
nonfederal estimates were taken from first-listed diagnoses with the International
Classification of Diseases codes 460 to 466 (9) among persons of
ages 15 to 44 years (10-13).
Figure 2. Department of
Defense medical treatment facilities and recruit training camps participating in
surveillance for emerging respiratory disease pathogens: invasive Streptococcus
pneumoniae (typing and antibiotic sensitivity studies); Streptococcus pyogenes (typing
and antibiotic sensitivity studies); and adenovirus (typing studies).
Figure 3. Military sites in
the United States participating in Department of Defense influenza surveillance. The focus
of surveillance at etiology-based sites is to determine the viral causes of influenzalike
illnesses; the focus of population-based sites is to closely monitor for influenzalike
illness epidemics.
