The Surgeon General of the Bundeswehr visited DHSC

The Surgeon General of the Bundeswehr, Lieutenant General Dr. Patschke, visited the Deployment Health Surveillance Capability (DHSC) of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (MILMED COE) in Munich on 2 July 2012.

He was received by the commanding Officer of the Bundeswehr Medical Office, Major General Dr. Pracht, where the branch is located and by MILMED COE staff. Col Dr. Holtherm, the Branch chief of the DHSC, provided a comprehensive briefing on the structure, recent achievements and future challenges of the branch. Supported by significant FRA and DEU resources the DHSC is under development and will sustainably support the near-real-time surveillance of infectious diseases in the future.

DHSC is the 4th "satellite" medical branch of MILMED COE, located in Munich. The mission of the DHSC is to contribute to a better preparedness of the deployed NATO Forces against the threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorist attacks. Therefore the DHSC is supporting operational readiness of our soldiers in NATO deployments and strengthening the Force Health Protection efforts of the military medical services in NATO. It utilizes the French near-real-time surveillance system “Alerte et Surveillance en Temps Reel” (ASTER). One of DHSC's main project is to contribute to the improvement and transformation of the existing NATO reporting system EpiNATO into a "New EpiNATO".

For more information about DHSC please visit the Branch's description webpage.