Military Medicine for Local Civilians

For civilians in developing countries, the presence of the American military can be a lifesaving source of medical care where such resources are scarce. For example, the U.S. Navy has its own medical laboratory for the study of diseases endemic to certain regions of the globe. Because U.S. servicemen have no built immunity against diseases specific to these regions, the young children native to that region serve as a good model for researchers. Treatments for children are used for studying the natural course of certain diseases and the effects of possible vaccinations or therapies. Though, throughout history, various legitimate ethical concerns have been raised of this self-interest, it has on the other hand benefited civilian populations significantly in some, though not all, cases. This self-interest, then, has had a role in promoting global health in some of the places where such attention is most needed.

Our speaker’s extensive work in working with local healthcare providers to bring surgical services to civilians near his base, confirms the potential this relationship has for the future. As he pointed out, however, there does not seem to be an official system in bringing medical attention to local populations. Though the unofficial work is great when it comes to individual clinicians and their work for individual patients, I would advocate a more formal relationship when it comes to working with local populations to study endemic diseases for the goal of benefiting U.S. servicemen. To this system, there should also ideally be a built-in formalized process to overlook ethical concerns, in the general or case-by-case basis.