Hyams K C, Hanson K, Wignall F S, Escamilla J, Oldfield E C
Epidemiology Division, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Clin Infect Dis. 1995 Jun;20(6):1497-504. doi: 10.1093/clinids/20.6.1497.
An assessment was conducted of the impact of infectious diseases on the 697,000 U.S. troops deployed to the Persian Gulf during 1990-1991 in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The incidence of nonbattle injuries, including infectious diseases, during this conflict was lower than during previous wars involving U.S. military personnel. The major reported causes of morbidity were generally mild cases of acute diarrheal and upper respiratory disease. The most unexpected outcome was the lack of arboviral infections, particularly sandfly fever, and the occurrence among U.S. troops of 12 cases of visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania tropica. The fact that infectious diseases were not a major cause of lost manpower, in sharp contrast to the experience among military personnel in World War II, can be attributed to a combination of factors: the presence of a comprehensive infrastructure of medical care, extensive preventive medicine efforts, and several fortuitous circumstances. Beneficial conditions that may not be present in future conflicts in this region include isolation of most combat troops to barren desert locations during the cooler, winter months, which provided the least favorable conditions for transmission of arthropod-borne diseases.
对1990 - 1991年“沙漠盾牌”行动和“沙漠风暴”行动期间部署到波斯湾的69.7万美军中传染病的影响进行了评估。在这场冲突中，包括传染病在内的非战斗伤亡发生率低于以往涉及美军人员的战争。报告的主要发病原因通常是急性腹泻和上呼吸道疾病的轻症病例。最出乎意料的结果是没有出现虫媒病毒感染，尤其是白蛉热，以及美军中出现了12例由热带利什曼原虫引起的内脏利什曼病。与第二次世界大战期间军事人员的经历形成鲜明对比的是，传染病并非造成人力损失的主要原因，这一事实可归因于多种因素的综合作用：存在全面的医疗基础设施、广泛的预防医学努力以及一些偶然情况。未来该地区冲突中可能不存在的有利条件包括，在较凉爽的冬季，大多数作战部队被隔离在贫瘠的沙漠地区，这为节肢动物传播疾病的传播提供了最不利的条件。
