Incidence of Viral Hepatitis in Military Personnel Performing External Missions

Abstract

Soldiers on missions are at risk of contracting major infectious diseases. Some of the most common food or water-borne diseases include diarrhea (bacterial and protozoan), hepatitis A, and typhoid fever, all of which pose serious threats to communities. The studied group consists of 102 people who performed missions in the theater of operations in Mali between December 2020 and September 2021. The tests were performed in the medical analysis laboratory of the Military Emergency Hospital. The group consists of male with an average age of 35-45 years. Analyzes were performed in the fields of microbiology, virology and biochemistry. negative on departure and return only one person was positive, Ac anti HCV remained the same (97 negative people and 5 positive), Ac anti HAV were present in all military personnel returned from the mission, only one soldier returned with Ag Hbe positive (those in which Ag Bhs was also positive), Ac anti Hbs positive in all military. Following the analyzes performed, we came to the conclusion that the protection measures taken in the theaters of operations are effective, as there is no contamination on the studied group with endemic germs of the area.