Military medicine
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Anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, stands as a formidable threat with both natural and bioterrorism-related implications. Its ability to afflict a wide range of hosts, including humans and animals, coupled with its potential use as a bioweapon, underscores the critical importance of understanding and advancing our capabilities to combat this infectious disease. In this context, exploring futuristic approaches becomes imperative, as they hold the promise of not only addressing current challenges but also ushering in a new era in anthrax management. This review delves into strategies to mitigate the impact of anthrax on global health and security, envisioning a future where our arsenal against anthrax is characterized by precision and adaptability. ⋯ The upcoming advancements in anthrax research will be based on cutting-edge technologies and innovative approaches that demonstrate great potential for prevention, detection, and treatment. These advancements may include the incorporation of synthetic biology techniques such as precise manipulation of biological components, nanoscale diagnostics, and Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-based technologies, which could revolutionize our ability to combat anthrax on a molecular level. As these progressive methodologies continue to evolve, the integration of these technologies has the potential to redefine our strategies against anthrax, providing more accurate, personalized, and adaptable approaches to address the challenges posed by this infectious threat.
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The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on physical fitness in previously healthy adults is not well understood. In this study, we assess the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the physical fitness test (PT) scores of Air Force basic trainees. ⋯ SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an increased risk of PT failure as well as conversion from a passing to failing test score. There were no differences in second test failure rates in symptomatic compared to asymptomatic trainees. A key confounder to the data was the effect deconditioning had on fitness during isolation.
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Fit and healthy military personnel are the basis for a strong organization and good health care is essential to ensure service people's deployability. This applies equally to female-specific health care (FSH). Quality health care can help not only to recruit but also retain more women in the military. However, as there is a lack of empirical studies focusing on service women's experiences with FSH, this study explores female military personnel's experiences with FSH in the Netherlands Armed Forces (NAF), including conditions such as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause in order to find ways of improving these women's health care and self-care. ⋯ The NAF are currently not focusing sufficiently on FSH. In order to provide their female personnel with a high quality of care, this will require changes in policy, implementation, and supervision as well as fostering the development of an open culture that enables discussions on FSH.
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Military medical personnel, including nurses, face a wide array of emotional and psychological issues while deployed. Understanding the challenges military nurses face in the deployed setting may prove useful in effectively preparing nurse leaders for future disaster responses in the military and civilian sectors. The purpose of this metasynthesis is to answer the following research question: What are the experiences of U.S. military and allied nurses deployed to medical facilities in combat operations and support areas since 9/11/2001? ⋯ Military nurses' deployment experiences relate to their multiple role(s) as a clinician, officer, and human being. By better understanding military nurses' past deployment experiences and related themes, nurse leaders and individuals can better prepare for supporting staff in future combat operations. The complexities of "caring," "leading," and "personhood" may contribute to emotional distress among deployed military medical personnel.
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Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) intravenous fluid (IVF) containers contain residual air, introducing the risk of venous air embolism (VAE). Venous air embolism occurs when air displaces blood flow in vasculature. The danger from residual air is often negligible in terrestrial settings, where gravitational forces generate buoyancy, pushing residual air to the top of the IVF container. However, in microgravity there is no buoyancy to separate liquid and gas layers. We performed experiments to quantify the amount of air in COTS IVF containers (Experiment 1) and identify the variables that affect the stability of sterilely produced airless containers (Experiment 2). ⋯ Residual air has a wide variety of volumes in COTS IVFs. The average amount of residual air is high enough to contribute to clinically significant VAEs, although unlikely to be fatal. If airless IVF containers are produced for exploration missions, a progressive increase in the amount of residual air should be expected. Extremes of temperatures and humidity will increase the reaccumulation of residual air and decrease the shelf-life of airless IVFs.