Monitoreo de la Influenza por las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses

El programa brinda información importante para apoyar los esfuerzos de salud en todo el mundo.
San Diego, Julio 7, – El reciente brote de influenza porcina ha subrayado la necesidad crítica de una buena vigilancia y acceso rápido a la información epidemiológica. Las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses, comenzando con esfuerzos tempranos de monitoreo en los setenta, han desarrollado un sistema de monitoreo de la influenza de amplia base. En un artículo publicado en el volumen de septiembre del 2009 de la American Journal of Preventive Medicine, los investigadores describen esta joya nacional poco conocida que ha hecho de manera repetida contribuciones notables al control global de la influenza a través de una estrecha colaboración con los CDC, la FDA, la OMS y muchas otras instituciones.
La preocupación nacional sobre las enfermedades infecciosas emergentes conllevó a la creación del Departamento de Defensa Global para la Vigilancia de las Infecciones Emergentes y el Sistema de Respuesta (DoD-GEIS) en 1997. Este programa tiene 6 objetivos relacionados con la influenza 1) aislar e identificar los virus de influenza circulantes, 2) detectar variantes nuevas o subtipos de virus para la posible modificación de las vacunas, 3) identificar brotes de influenza, 4) determinar la incidencia de enfermedades parecidas a la influenza entre las poblaciones armadas centinelas en riesgo, tales como las poblaciones en entrenamiento básico, 5) prevenir y controlar brotes endémicos o pandémicos de influenza y 6) llevar a cabo la vigilancia global de la influenza basada en el laboratorio y de manera relevante operativamente.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/ehs-imb070609.php

According to the Institute of Medicine, “The DoD–Global Emerging Infections System, through its avian influenza/pandemic influenza activities at the [DoD] overseas laboratories and headquarters, has contributed greatly to the development of laboratory and communications infrastructures within partner countries. Beneficial effects can be seen from current DoD-GEIS efforts in 56 countries to assist its public health partners in building capacity through training and support of laboratory and communications infrastructures.”
Writing in the article, Col. James Neville, MD, MPH, of the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks City-Base, Texas, and colleagues state, “During seven complete influenza seasons, the DoD Global Laboratory-Based Influenza Surveillance Program…coordinated and expanded influenza surveillance efforts among the uniformed services and with DoD partner nations overseas, and operated in concert with WHO and CDC programs. As a result, the DoD and other global communities benefited from improved surveillance and expanded influenza laboratory and epidemiologic capability. The generated data and information supported timely, informed decision making in response to threats, expanded the data set used to select the components for seasonal influenza vaccines, and provided candidate seed viruses for possible use in influenza vaccines used worldwide.”
In a commentary in the same issue, Dr. Patrick W. Kelley, MD, DrPH, of the Institute of Medicine, The National Academies, notes that, “The somewhat unexpected emergence of novel H1N1 in Mexico, rather than in the anticipated Asian setting, highlights a lesson learned about the need for comprehensive global influenza surveillance. This is a lesson that geographically diverse foreign military health systems may be well-positioned to help address.”
He continues, “The success of the US DoD system, and the particular epidemiologic characteristics of military populations and military health systems, suggest that global influenza surveillance and response could be more comprehensive and informative if other military organizations around the world took advantage of their comparative organizational advantages to emulate, extend, and institutionalize the US DoD approach.”