LESSON 7
MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES AND
IMMUNIZATIONS
Section I. VIRAL HEPATITIS
7-1.
INTRODUCTION
a. Military Importance. Hepatitis has always been a disease of concern to the
military. The true impact of viral hepatitis was difficult to ascertain before the availability
of serologic tests. The Army was responsible for one of the major studies which
differentiated "short' and "long" incubation hepatitis when, in World War II, a batch of
yellow fever vaccine was contaminated with the virus. Fifty thousand cases of hepatitis
resulted.
b. In Military History. A major problem with the hepatitis B virus was
documented in the U.S. troop population in Korea through the 1960s. Attack rates in
the range of 8 to 10 per thousand (among 50,000 troops) resulted in a policy of immune
globulin use for all deployed soldiers. By 1970, rates were one-half to one-third of the
earlier rates.
c. Sanitation. Sanitation has had the greatest effect in the incidence of
hepatitis A and hepatitis E that are considerably less prevalent in the developed nations
than in third world countries.
7-2.
GENERAL CONCEPTS ABOUT HEPATITIS
a. Identification. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. There is a broad
spectrum of potential causes.
Chemical causes (substances such as ethyl alcohol, mushroom toxins,
carbon tetrachloride)
Latrogenic causes (a variety of drugs such as acetaminophen, isoniazid)
Infectious causes (a variety of agents such as malaria, herpes simplex,
toxoplasmosis)
MD0152
7-2