Naval Medical Research Unit Two | |
---|---|
Active | 1944–present |
Country | United States of America |
Branch | United States Navy |
Role | NAMRU-2 is the primary source of infectious diseases research in the Asia/Pacific region for the US Navy. |
Part of | Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) |
Garrison/HQ | Phnom Phen, Cambodia |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Captain Patrick Blair |
Naval Medical Research Unit Indo Pacific, formerly known as Naval Medical Research Unit Two (NAMRU-2), [1] is a biomedical research laboratory of the US Navy established with the purpose to study infectious diseases of potential military significance in Asia. [2] NAMRU-2 is officially registered as a subordinate command of Naval Medical Research Center located on Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. and considered as the center network of laboratories around the world. [3]
NAMRU-2 operates in several countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. [3] In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, NAMRU-2 opened, outfitted, and staffed a satellite laboratory to conduct regional infectious disease outbreak research, and diagnostic laboratory support within the Office of Defense Cooperation, U.S. Embassy Singapore. [2] [3]
NAMRU-2 was founded as Naval Medical Research Unit 2, at Rockefeller University in New York City in 1944 with Captain Thomas Rivers as commanding officer. It moved to Guam in 1945 to study medical problems of the Navy and Marine Corps during World War II pacific operations. [2] In 1955 Commander Robert Allan Phillips convinced US naval leadership that a research presence was needed in the pacific region. NAMRU-2 was reestablished in Taipei, Taiwan in 1955 [2] with now Captain Phillips as its commanding officer. Phillips would remain as commander for the next 10 years. In 1966, NAMRU-2 opened a detachment at the Naval Support Activity Hospital in Da Nang, South Vietnam. It was here that Lieutenant Myron Tong [4] performed some of his seminal research into pathogens infecting combat wounds resulting in the first descriptions of acinetobacter baumannii infection in combat casualties. [5] The research detachment would remain until 1970 when it was disestablished.
In 1970, NAMRU-2 would establish a detachment in Jakarta, Indonesia upon the invitation of Indonesian Ministry of Health officials. [6] In 1979, U.S. diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China resulted in the relocation of the NAMRU-2 Command from Taipei to Manila, Philippines and in 1990 due to political upheaval and possible threats to US personnel it was again relocated to Jakarta, Indonesia. The facility in Jakarta is located in 62,000 square feet of laboratory, office and storage spaces in three buildings within the Indonesian Ministry of Health, National Institutes of Health (Badan LITBANGKES) compound. In the 1990s NAMRU-2 performed cutting-edge research on the use of primaquine as primary prophylaxis for plasmodium falciparum malaria in Javanese men living in Irian Jaya.
In 1998, NAMRU-2 became part of the newly reorganized Naval Medical Research Center. [7] [8]
In 2002, Phnom Penh activities were established by NAMRU-2 to conduct regional infectious disease research and diagnostic laboratory support, operating out of a laboratory located at the National Institutes of Public Health, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In 2007, to reflect Navy Medicine's priorities in response to global emerging infectious disease threats, NAMRU-2 recognized the activities in Phnom Penh as a detachment, while at the same time opening a detachment within the Office of Defense Cooperation, U.S. Embassy Singapore. [9]
In 1946, NAMRU-2 was redesignated the U.S. Naval Institute of Tropical Medicine (NITM) reflecting its focus on tropical infections of interest to the military such as malaria and Dengue fever. In 1947 NAMRU-2 developed a therapeutic regimen for cholera utilizing whole blood and plasma-specific gravity as guides, this work was a breakthrough in determining life-saving extracellular fluid requirements. However NITM was disestablished shortly thereafter.
NAMRU-2 would respond to Cholera epidemics in Bangkok, Thailand in 1958, Sulawesi, Indonesia and the Philippines in 1961, where it became a world leader in cholera research and treatment. [10] In 1961 it established a collaborative research site at San Lazaro Hospital in Manila to assist in the El tor cholera outbreak in the Philippines, here several key hypotheses of correct intravenous fluid rehydration for cholera treatment were proven.
In 1969 researchers at NAMRU-2 would be the first to demonstrate the role of attenuated Rubella vaccine in preventing naturally acquired disease in man.
Primaquine is a medication used to treat and prevent malaria and to treat Pneumocystis pneumonia. Specifically it is used for malaria due to Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale along with other medications and for prevention if other options cannot be used. It is an alternative treatment for Pneumocystis pneumonia together with clindamycin. It is taken by mouth.
Plasmodium vivax is a protozoal parasite and a human pathogen. This parasite is the most frequent and widely distributed cause of recurring malaria. Although it is less virulent than Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of the five human malaria parasites, P. vivax malaria infections can lead to severe disease and death, often due to splenomegaly. P. vivax is carried by the female Anopheles mosquito; the males do not bite.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The institute is centered at the Forest Glen Annex, in the Forest Glen Park part of the unincorporated Silver Spring urban area in Maryland just north of Washington, DC, but it is a subordinate unit of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), headquartered at nearby Fort Detrick, Maryland. At Forest Glen, the WRAIR has shared a laboratory and administrative facility — the Sen Daniel K. Inouye Building, also known as Building 503 — with the Naval Medical Research Center since 1999.
Pamaquine is an 8-aminoquinoline drug formerly used for the treatment of malaria. It is closely related to primaquine.
The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health care facilities as well as laboratories for biomedical research, and trains and manages the Navy's many staff corps related to medicine. Its headquarters is located at the Defense Health Headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia. BUMED has 41,930 medical personnel and more than a million eligible beneficiaries.
Operation Pacific Angel is a recurring joint/combined humanitarian assistance mission sponsored by US Pacific Command (USPACOM) designed to bring humanitarian civic assistance (HCA) and civil-military operations (CMO) to areas in need in the Pacific region. It is conducted in locations throughout the Pacific theater to support the U.S. military charter of capacity building in partner nations. The operations contain elements of all four branches of the Department of Defense, including active duty, National Guard, and reserve members.
The quality of health in Cambodia is rising along with its growing economy. The public health care system has a high priority from the Cambodian government and with international help and assistance, Cambodia has seen some major and continuous improvements in the health profile of its population since the 1980s, with a steadily rising life expectancy.
Gregory J. Martin is an American medical doctor and captain in the United States Navy. Martin is a recognized expert in the fields of infectious diseases and bioterrorism.
The Iquitos Satellite Laboratory (IQTLAB) was established in 2002 in the city of Iquitos, Peru by doctor Margaret Kosek, biologist Maribel Paredes Olortegui, and nurse Pablo Peñataro Yori, with the collaboration of the Dr. Robert Gilman working group in Lima, Peru and the US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 (NAMRU-6).
Robert Allan Phillips MD was a research scientist whose research contributed to a transformation in the treatment of cholera.
The Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is one of the many Tropical Medicine Training Courses available in the US and worldwide. It is an intensive 5-day course and a 3-day short course, created to familiarize students with tropical diseases they may encounter overseas. The course is open to Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, ESO, 18D, or other medical personnel. The course is run by the military and designed for personnel of the US Military and several other US government agencies.
Naval Medical Research Unit One was a research laboratory of the US Navy which was founded as Naval Laboratory Research Unit 1, a Naval Reserve Unit at the University of California Berkeley in the life sciences building in 1934 after a campaign by a Berkeley scientist Albert P. Krueger to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to have a laboratory to study and prevent influenza and respiratory infections in naval forces. It was mobilized as an active duty naval unit in 1941 to study the epidemiological impact of diseases such as influenza, meningitis, and catarrhal fever, as well as tropical diseases such as malaria on the US Navy during World War II.
Naval Medical Research Unit Five (NAMRU-5) was a research laboratory of the US Navy which was founded as a field facility of Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia with a collecting station in Gambella on December 30, 1965 under an agreement between the US and Ethiopian governments. In 1974 NAMRU-5 was established as its own command and was housed in the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute. The mission of NAMRU-5 was to conduct research and development on infectious diseases of military importance in sub-Sahara Africa. Gambella became the focus of a major malaria control effort and studies on malaria immunology. Applied research focused on the general areas of insect repellents, insecticide resistance, insect attractants and louse control.
Naval Medical Research Unit Three (NAMRU-3) is a biomedical research laboratory of the US Navy located in Sigonella, Italy. Previously it was located in Cairo, Egypt. NAMRU-3 is the oldest U.S. overseas military medical research facility that has remained in the same location, and one of the largest medical research laboratories in the North Africa-Middle East region. The laboratory has been in continuous operation despite periods of political tension and a seven-year lapse in U.S.-Egyptian relations (1967–1973) since 1942.
Naval Medical Research Unit SOUTH, formerly known as Naval Medical Research Unit Six, is a biomedical research laboratory of the U.S. Navy located in Lima, Peru. It is the only U.S. military command located in South America. Its mission is to identify infectious disease threats of military and public health importance and to develop and evaluate interventions and products to mitigate those threats.
The Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC) is an agency that performs basic and applied biomedical research to meet the needs of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. Its areas of focus include study of infectious diseases, biodefense, military medicine, battlefield medicine, and bone marrow research. NMRC is under the United States Department of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
Pylore Krishnaier Rajagopalan is an Indian vector control scientist, biologist and acarologist, known for his pioneering contributions to the control programmes against vector-borne diseases in India. He is a former director of the Indian Council of Medical Research managed Vector Control Research Centre, Pondicherry. He graduated in 1949 from the Banaras Hindu University and obtained a Masters in Zoology with University First Rank there itself in 1951. In 1952 he joined the fledgling Virus Research Centre in Pune, and worked under the supervision of some of the finest vector control specialists such as Dr T Ramachandra Rao. In recognition of his outstanding work as a young research scientist, in 1957 he was awarded a Fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue a Master's program in Public Health from the University of California. He went on to secure a Diploma in Acarology from the University of Maryland at College Park.
The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) is a United States Army project that started as a collaboration with the Government of Thailand to fight a cholera outbreak in Bangkok in 1958 and 1959. It subsequently expanded to conduct military medical research, primarily involving infectious diseases, across much of Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.
Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton (NAMRU-D) is a biomedical research laboratory of the United States Navy in Dayton, Ohio. It is one of seven subordinate commands of the Naval Medical Research Center and incorporates two research divisions. The Environmental Health Effects Laboratory was established in 1959 in Bethesda, Maryland, and moved to Dayton in 1976. NAMRU-D's predecessor organization, the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL), dates back to 1939 when it was established as an aviation medical research unit at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Pursuant to a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission decision, NAMRL began incrementally relocating to Dayton in late 2010. and was formally disestablished at NAS Pensacola in September 2011. Despite being a Navy activity, NAMRU-D was set up on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton so it could be co-located with similar U.S. Air Force activities.