22 Feb. 2001

CAMELS Liaison Report to the AHCDU AD HOC Committee on Depleted Uranium (AHCDU) The COMEDS Plenary met on 15 January 2001 to discuss the health concerns raised among the military personnel and veterans of member nations deployed to the Balkan Theatre. The Plenary directed that each nation should correlate the collection of morbidity data with known local health hazards in theatre. The Plenary further directed that a meeting of the COMEDS Working Group on Military Preventive Medicine (WG-MPM) be held to Develop a co-ordinated implementation strategy for the collection and correlation of morbidity data with known local health hazards in theatre , and Develop a strategy, process and standardised procedures that will enable known and future health hazards to be identified and addressed. The scope of the meeting of the WG-MPM held on 14th February 2001 at the Headquarters of the US Army Centre for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine-Europe, was clearly broader than only DU, according to the COMEDS Plenary directives. The current outcome of the WG's work is a draft STANAG entitled "Deployment Health Surveillance". A robust health surveillance system is a critical component of a Force Health Protection. The surveillance should include identifying the population at risk, identifying potential health hazards, assessing these hazards, employing specific countermeasures and monitoring health outcomes. The aim of this STANAG will be providing a strategy, process and routine by which standardised procedures for assessing health readiness and conducing health surveillance in support of NATO deployments is accomplished. The NATO nations should therefore agree to collect at least the following information on all deployed forces The minimum essential information elements for weekly disease and non-battle injury reports (i.e. the use of the EPINATO morbidity surveillance system); The minimal essential information elements for occupational and environmental health surveillance; The minimal essential information elements for pre and post deployment health assessments, which are listed in STANAG 2235, currently in draft form. All data summaries, final reports and investigations prepared in accordance with the requirements of this drafted STANAG should be forwarded from the deployed task force Surgeon's office to a central repository located in a designated location and though the Theatre Surgeon's Office to the SHAPE Medical Advisor's staff using standardised reporting application. The coming milestones for the development of this STANAG will be the presentation of the draft tp the COMEDS Executive Staff Co-ordination Group on 27th March, the necessary staffing and the discussion of this draft at the next COMEDS Plenary.