US MILITARY OVERSEAS MEDICAL-RESEARCH LABORATORIES

Many infectious disease threats to U.S. military operations are uncomm on in the United States, The advanced development and testing of count ermeasures, such as vaccines, drugs, or insect repellents, requires th e capability to study militarily important infectious diseases where t hey occur. With formal agreements between the U.S. and each host count ry, the U.S. military operates seven overseas medical research laborat ories (labs), Six labs conduct infectious disease research and are dis tributed over three continents; Africa (labs in Egypt and Kenya), Asia (labs in Indonesia and Thailand), and South America (labs in Brazil a nd Peru), One other lab is located in Germany and conducts psychosocia l research related to military personnel and their families. In additi on to product development, these labs play vital roles supporting over seas deployments, providing technical training, and promoting internat ional relations, Also, these labs are well positioned to become part o f a developing global surveillance and response system to help address the threat posed by emerging infectious diseases, This article will p resent an overview of this unique medical research capability, describ e the history and some of the activities of each lab, and discuss the importance of maintaining these labs in the 21st century.