Immunisation used for offensive and defensive purposes during the Second World War.

The best defence against natural or intentional biological agents during armed conflict is usually immunisation, as with typhoid fever, but exceptional circumstances are informative. A large iatrogenic epidemic of hepatitis B occurred in 1942 due to contaminated lots of yellow fever (YF) vaccine used in the US military, even though there was no natural risk of infection. YF vaccine was intended to protect against Japanese Army's use of YF as a biowarfare agent, which did not eventuate.

Plasmodium vivax Relapse Rates in Allied Soldiers during the Second World War: Importance of Hypnozoite Burden.

Allied soldiers suffered repeated relapses of Plasmodium vivax malaria during and immediately after the Second World War. This surprised many military medical officers who had underestimated the huge casualties produced by P. vivax malaria.

Liberty ship sinking disrupts military medical mobilisation in 1942.

Medical mobilisation is vital to support tropical campaigns where many disease casualties are expected. Much of the medical supplies and equipment for nine station and three general hospitals that were being placed in Australia were aboard the Liberty Ship SS Rufus King when it went aground off Moreton Island on 7 July 1942. A concerted salvage operation rescued 85% of the stores from the freighter that had broken in half on the Amity sandbar.

Malaria Relapses Following Parasite-Free Blood Transfusions in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Latent Plasmodium vivax parasites in the liver known as hypnozoites activate causing malaria relapses months after the original infection. The putative initiation signal is unknown. Plasmodium falciparum infections appear to trigger P.

Modelling the epidemiology of malaria and spread of HRP2-negative Plasmodium falciparum following the replacement of HRP2-detecting rapid diagnostic tests.

Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are dominated by products which use histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) to detect Plasmodium falciparum. The emergence of parasites lacking the pfhrp2 gene can lead to high rates of false-negative results amongst these RDTs. One solution to restore the ability to correctly diagnose falciparum malaria is to switch to an RDT which is not solely reliant on HRP2.

Impact of Plasmodium falciparum gene deletions on malaria rapid diagnostic test performance.

Background: Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have greatly improved access to diagnosis in endemic countries. Most RDTs detect Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2), but their sensitivity is seriously threatened by the emergence of pfhrp2-deleted parasites. RDTs detecting P.

Did coronaviruses cause 'influenza epidemics' prior to 1918?

There were epidemics of influenza-like illness during the winters of 1915–6 and 1916–7 when mortality was low among infants and children but high among older adults (like SARS-CoV-2 but not influenza). Records suggest that ‘influenza’ epidemics preceding the 1918–9 pandemic were caused by multiple respiratory viruses possibly an undocumented coronavirus.

Discovery of Cocirculating Ross River Virus and Barmah Forest Virus At Wide Bay Military Training Area, Northeastern Australia.

An arbovirus surveillance military exercise was conducted to assess the risk of Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV) in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Wide Bay training area (WBTA), northeastern Australia, in April 2018. Of the 5,540 female mosquitoes collected, 3,702 were screened for RRV and BFV by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in a field laboratory. One pool of was positive for RRV and 8 pools (7 pools of and 1 pool of ) were positive for BFV.

Epidemiological Isolation as an Infection Mortality Risk Factor in U.S. Soldiers from Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries.

It remains uncertain why most infectious disease mortalities disappeared before modern medical interventions. Historical epidemiology using prospectively collected U.S.

Anomalies of the 1919 influenza pandemic remain unexplained after 100 years.

The modern world's most lethal single event, the 1918-1921 influenza pandemic, remains an anomaly which is still unexplained. The pandemic's unprecedented mortality was very unevenly distributed with young adults and isolated populations worst affected. Australia was the last continent involved with about 12 000 influenza deaths in 1919.

An assessment of false positive rates for malaria rapid diagnostic tests caused by non-Plasmodium infectious agents and immunological factors.

Background: Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) can produce false positive (FP) results in patients with human African trypanosomiasis and rheumatoid factor (RF), but specificity against other infectious agents and immunological factors is largely unknown. Low diagnostic specificity caused by cross-reactivity may lead to over-estimates of the number of malaria cases and over-use of antimalarial drugs, at the cost of not diagnosing and treating the true underlying condition.

Methods: Data from the WHO Malaria RDT Product Testing Programme was analysed to assess FP rates of 221 RDTs against four infectious agents (Chagas, dengue, Leishmaniasis and Schistosomiasis) and four immunological factors (anti-nuclear antibody, human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA), RF and rapid plasma regain).