9.The global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in restriction of non-essential travel across the globe, as seen in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Memorandum, “Force Health Protection Guidance (Supplement 4) DoD Guidance for Personnel Traveling During the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak” (11 March 2020). This resulted in the suspension of most, if not all, Department of Defense (DoD) security cooperation (SC) programs, including DoD Global Health Engagement (GHE) activities.1 One such program is the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership (APRRP), which relies heavily on face-to-face interactions with select African Partner Nations (PNs), and which was significantly impacted by the inability to conduct in-person training with key partners. In light of these restrictions and suspended activities, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences’ (USU’s) Center for Global Health Engagement (CGHE), in support of the US Africa Command (USAFRICOM) Office of the Command Surgeon, explored virtual means to execute DoD GHE activities to continue engaging its APRRP PNs, pending return to in-country activities.COVID-19, a highly infectious virus, presents self-evident problems with regards to aeromedical transportation. Droplet size, proximity of caregiver from the patient, severity of upper and lower respiratory symptoms, personal protective equipment (PPE) and turbulence of airflow are factors which may influence the transmission of any biological agent aboard an air transport platform. Given the relatively confined space of rotary-wing MEDEVAC helicopters and the lack of structural barriers between flight crew and passengers, transmission risk is high, particularly when close contact under these conditions last beyond 15 minutes.1 Some authorities strongly recommend against the rotary-wing evacuation of COVID-19 patients when ground or fixed-wing transport is available due to the high risk of transmission.2,3.Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, the world community has responded with ever-evolving measures to reduce the spread of SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)1. One particular area of interest is understanding the risk of the in-person classroom setting and if any mitigation efforts are effective in preventing the spread of disease in that setting. In this paper, we present a case study of a US Army Advanced Individual Training (AIT) course/classroom wherein a student was diagnosed with COVID-19, and there was no apparent spread to others in his classroom. We discuss the mitigation efforts put in place that appear to be, in this case, effective in preventive onward spread of the virus. These are social distancing, face coverings/masks, and hygiene practices including hand washing and sanitation of surfaces.

Respirators have received much attention since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a substantial shortage of the most commonly used respirator, the N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator (N95), as well as the desire to have added protection while performing aerosol generating procedures (AGPs), dental healthcare personnel (DHCP) have considered alternative respirator options. It is well documented in the medical literature that the Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) provides better protection against respiratory pathogens; however, there are no reported cases that describe the use of PAPRs in the dental setting. This survey report evaluates the use of a loose-fitting full facepiece PAPR by different dental providers.

To determine if a PAPR can be used in the dental setting and identify any potential barriers to use.

Eleven DHCP representing general dentistry, dental hygiene, pediatric dentistry, endodontics, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery and maxillofacial prosthodontics at Walthe dental setting suggests there is a place for PAPRs in the dental community.As SARS-CoV-2 spread throughout the world military units had to develop ways of combatting risk to ensure force health protection and deployability of their soldiers. Medical functions were impacted and solutions needed to be found in order to incorporate these items as functioning medical platforms. In the following article, we address one unit’s individual response to the difficulties faced as a Military Police Brigade in Europe. Lessons learned from the initial wave of COVID-19 across medical operations, medical readiness, virtual health, and behavioral health initiatives can be utilized for better planning and response in the future.With limited clinical resources, burgeoning testing requests from Army and other Service units to clinical laboratories, and the continued spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) throughout the military population, the Army Public Health Laboratory (APHL) Enterprise was tasked to establish surveillance testing capabilities for active duty military populations in an expedient manner. Following a proof-of-concept study conducted by Public Health Command-Pacific, Public Health Command-Europe was the first public health laboratory to offer the capability to assess for SARS-CoV-2 in pooled samples, followed closely by the Army Public Health Center (APHC) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD, paralleling the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from China to Europe to the continental US. The APHLs have selected pool sizes of up to 10 samples per pool based on the best evidence available at the time of method development and validation. Real-Time quantitative Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) assays using RNA extracts from pooled nasopharyngeal swabs preserved in viral transport media were selected to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2. The rapid development of initial surveillance testing capabilities depended on existing equipment in each laboratory, with a plan to implement full operational capability using additional staff and common high-throughput platforms. APHL Enterprise has successfully used existing resources to begin to address the changing and complex needs for COVID-19 testing within the Army population. learn more Successful implementation of pooled surveillance testing at the APHC Laboratory has enabled more than 8,600 Soldiers to avoid clinical testing to date. The APHC Laboratory alone has tested over 10,000 samples and prevented approximately 8,600 soldiers from seeking testing with clinical diagnostic assays.