Medical Surveillance Monthly Report (MSMR). Volume 2, Number 10, December 1996
Abstract
Outbreaks of febrile acute respiratory disease (ARD) have occurred throughout the history of the military, particularly during fall-winter seasons. ARD outbreaks, sometimes massive, have often disrupted training and overwhelmed local medical support at mobilization and basic training centers. In the 1960s, it was demonstrated that adenoviruses, particularly types 4 and 7, were predominant causes of ARD among Army basic trainees. In 1966, a surveillance system was established at Army training centers to monitor the safety, efficacy, and side effects of the then new adenovirus vaccines . For more than thirty years since then, the Army has conducted surveillance of febrile acute respiratory diseases among basic trainees. For this program, a case of ARD is defined as a trainee who is hospitalized with fever (oral temperature > 100.5F) and a sign or symptom of acute respiratory tract inflammation. Figure 1 shows the large decline in ARD rates among Army trainees following 1984, the year the Army began year-round use of adenovirus vaccines. Since then, ARD rates have declined slowly but persistently culminating in the lowest annual rate ever recorded in 1996 (0.19 per 100 trainee-weeks). Figure 2 is an overlay of plots of weekly ARD rates at individual training centers during the last ten years. This display shows that ARD outbreaks have been infrequent, particularly in the last five years. In addition, figure 2 shows that the seasonally adjusted baseline (around which rates of individual centers vary) and magnitudes of fall-winter peaks have slowly but persistently declined over the past decade. In this edition, there is a detailed update of the Army's ARD surveillance experience for calendar years 1995 and 1996.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA497669
Entities
People
- Bill C. Hewitson
- Bruce H. Jones
- Cynthia R. Towle
- John Brundage
- Kimmie Hohlhase
- Mark V Rubertone
- Sharon L. Ludwig
- Stephen C. Craig
Organizations
- Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center