Rudland, Simon, Little, Mark, Kemp, Paul, Miller, Alastair, and Hodge, Jon (1996) The enemy within: diarrheal rates among British and Australian troops in Iraq. Military Medicine, 161 (12). pp. 728-731.

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Abstract

British and Australian medical teams working in Northern Iraq in 1991 providing primary care to refugees and the war wounded were subjected to a descriptive retrospective survey, 5 weeks after arriving in Iraq. The aim was to document different rates of diarrhea in British and Australian troops. The British, who were not taking daily doxycycline and did not enforce a plate- and hand-washing routine, experienced higher rates of diarrhea (69% of British troops compared with 36% of Australian troops), which was more severe and of a longer duration (p < D.001) and resulted in twice as many days being lost (p < 0.001) in spite of the British team being half the size of the Australian contingent, and the region having entero­ pathogens with a high rate of antibiotic resistance. Vigorous hand- and plate-washing routines along with doxycycline pro­ phylaxis appear to significantly reduce incapacitation from diarrhea in this military setting and have an important impli­cation for operational effectiveness.

Item ID:	39489
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1930-613X
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2016 02:10
FoR Codes:	11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences > 119999 Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	92 HEALTH > 9299 Other Health > 929999 Health not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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