RESPIRATORY SURVEILLANCE

BACKGROUND

Service members often live and work in close quarters, making them vulnerable to the spread of contagious pathogens that can degrade operational readiness. Situational awareness of respiratory morbidity and outbreaks is key to protecting and maintaining operational readiness and force health protection.

VALUE

We determine etiologies of respiratory pathogens that cause disease among Department of Defense (DoD) beneficiary and U.S.–Mexico border populations and provide actionable surveillance data to military line and medical leaders and research partners. The work done by our Respiratory Surveillance team serves as an early warning system for the presence of dangerous pathogens, allowing military leaders and medical professionals to take action that prevents or contains respiratory disease outbreaks.

GOALS

Determine etiology of respiratory pathogens causing clinical disease
Conduct surveillance to provide early warning for respiratory disease outbreaks and alert and inform DoD stakeholders
Evaluate new respiratory diagnostics
Estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness and provide data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on annual influenza vaccines

CAPABILITIES

Testing samples collected by NHRC or collaborators using a broad respiratory panel
Publishing weekly and quarterly updates with rates and etiologies for respiratory pathogens
Further characterization of identified pathogens through functional and genetic assays, including whole genome sequencing
Historical Respiratory Dashboard
Pre-syndromic surveillance
Real-time surveillance

Bacteriology

NHRC’s bacteriology section specializes in the culture of respiratory pathogens, including:

Chlamydia pneumoniae
Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Virology

NHRC uses viral culture and immunoassays to isolate and identify respiratory viruses, including:

Influenza
Adenovirus
Respiratory syncytial virus A and B
SARS-CoV-2
Human bocavirus (HBoV)
Coronaviruses (229E/HKU1/NL63/OC43)
Parainfluenza virus (types 1, 2, 3, 4)
Rhinovirus/enterovirus (RV/EV)
Human metapneumovirus (hMPV)

Research Section

25 years of respiratory surveillance among recruits, DoD beneficiaries, and U.S.–Mexico populations
Virus Interference and Recombination Study
Seroconversion rate and risk of Coccidioides infection among active duty personnel stationed 12 consecutive months during 2015–2019 period at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona

RESEARCH

Febrile respiratory illness (FRI) disease surveillance to monitor rates and identify outbreaks
- Aboard military ships
- Recruit training sites
- Military clinics
- U.S.–Mexico border
Etiology and epidemiology of pneumonia
Historical Respiratory NHRC Dashboard
Estimate of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness
Pre-syndromic surveillance
Annual Respiratory Report

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