ACUTE GASTROENTERITIS (AGE) SURVEILLANCE

BACKGROUND

Service members often live and work in close quarters and deploy to underdeveloped regions of the world where they may be exposed to contagious pathogens that cause acute gastroenteritis (AGE), compromising their health and degrading operational readiness. Situational awareness of AGE morbidity and outbreaks is key to protecting and maintaining operational readiness and force health protection.

VALUE

We conduct population-based surveillance among military trainees at U.S. Armed Forces basic training centers for AGE, focusing on norovirus infection, to provide actionable surveillance data to military line and medical leaders and research partners. We also profile bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among Department of Defense (DoD) beneficiaries, U.S.–Mexico border populations, and recruits. The work done by our AGE Surveillance team enables early detection of enteric disease outbreaks, allowing military leaders and medical professionals to take action to prevent or contain outbreaks and protect the health of our service members.

GOALS

Understand the impact of AGE through surveillance efforts, including loss of personnel and training hours, and loss of fiscal resources
Serve as an early warning system for enteric disease outbreaks

RESEARCH

Global travelers’ diarrhea
Collection and testing of specimen samples from recruit training sites
Enteric bacterial AMR
Historical enteric surveillance among recruit and civilian populations

CAPABILITIES

Publish quarterly updates with rates and etiologies for respiratory pathogens
Culture and characterize pathogens such as norovirus, salmonella, shigella, Campylobacter jejuni, and Escherichia coli
Historical Enteric Dashboard
Provide further characterization of identified pathogens through functional and genetic assays, including whole-genome sequencing

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
7700 Arlington Blvd. Ste. 5113 Falls Church, VA 22042-5113
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General Navy Medical Inquiries (to Bureau of Medicine and Surgery): usn.ncr.bumedfchva.mbx.bumed-general-inquiries@health.mil