[Current status of immunization in the Armed Forces: need of continuous adaptation of vaccinations against cerebrospinal meningitis, typhoid and hepatitis A].

The history of military medicine has always been closely linked with that of vaccinations. Doctors of Armed Forces, doctors of collectivities, have contributed to vaccination progresses in large amounts. But evolutions are often rapid here: epidemiological modifications, improvements in the existing vaccines or creation of new vaccines, diversification of military specificities. Three recent modifications in the vaccination schedule of the Armed Forces show this necessary adaptation: systematization of the meningococcal A+C vaccination during the incorporation, because of the modification of the disease's epidemiological profile; increase of the frequency in serogroup C with a mortality increase (9 cases of death out of 10 observed between 1991 and 1992); cancellation of antityphoid vaccination for recruits serving in home country. Indeed the disease has become rare in France, and this is often due to imported cases (3 cases in the Armed Forces in 1992); introduction in 1994 of vaccination against viral hepatitis A, systematic under the age of 25 years and after a serological selection above for servicemen having to serve overseas or for outside operations. These 3 examples show the necessity to have updated and adaptable vaccination schedules.