[Emerging Infectious Diseases]  
[Volume 4 No. 4 /October-December 1998]



News and Notes

Meeting Summary

Overseas Medical Laboratory Conference

Military Infectious Disease Research Program, U.S. Army Medical Research
and Development Command, Ft. Detrick, Maryland, USA

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The Military Infectious Disease Research Program, U.S. Army Medical
Research and Materiel Command, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research (WRAIR) hosted a workshop on overseas activities in infectious
disease research in December 1997, at WRAIR, Washington, D.C. Approximately
150 Army and Navy medical research scientists met to discuss progress
toward specific goals designed to produce products and information
applicable to protection of military personnel in the field.

The Department of Defense has developed a network of six overseas
laboratories that perform research on infectious diseases of public health
and military importance (Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical
Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand; the Naval Medical Research Units No. 2 in
Jakarta, Indonesia, and No. 3 in Cairo, Egypt; the U.S. Army Medical
Research Units in Nairobi, Kenya, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the Naval
Medical Research Institute Detachment in Lima, Peru). The combination of
laboratories in the United States (WRAIR, U.S. Army Institute for
Infectious Diseases, and the Naval Medical Research Institute) and overseas
forms an effective international infectious diseases research program, in
which domestic laboratories are positioned to maintain contact with
academia and other branches of the government and overseas laboratories
detect new trends in naturally occurring endemic and epidemic infectious
diseases of potential military relevance (through their own surveillance or
close contact with foreign health authorities and conducting risk
assessment). The overseas laboratories also conduct trials of new products
for disease prevention and control.

For more information on the workshop, contact LTC Daniel Strickman, U.S.
Army Medical Research and Development Command, (Attn: MCMR-PLA), 504 Scott
Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5012, USA; tel: 301-619-7567; fax:
301-619-2416; e-mail: COL_Charles_Hoke@ftdetrck-ccmail.army.mil.


Emerging Infectious Diseases
National Center for Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA

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