The Threat of Infectious Disease in Americans Returning from Operation Desert Storm

Abstract

Whenever Americans spend time in foreign lands, they may become infected with pathogens alien to the United States and bring these pathogens back with them. Mass deployments of the U.S. Armed Forces abroad amplify this risk since military personnel are more intimately exposed than ordinary travelers to each other, to local people, and to the natural environment. The breakdown of public health measures, hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition that inevitably accompanies warfare further magnifies this peril. Since August 1990, more than 500,000 Americans have been sent to the Middle East, where they have encountered a variety of infectious diseases endemic to . . .