Medical Support of the US Army in Vietnam

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Page 33

(Medical Support of the US Army in Vietnam)

TABLE 1.- HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS FOR ALL CAUSES, U.S. ARMY, IN THREE WARS: WORLD WAR II, KOREA, AND VIETNAM, BY YEAR

[Rate expressed as number of admissions per annum per 1,000 average strength]

War	Year	All causes	Non-battle injury	Battle injury and wounds	Disease	Disease as percents of all causes
WWII: China-Burma-India	1942	1,130	81	3	1,046	92
	1943	1,081	84	6	991	92
	1944	1,191	96	18	1,077	90
	1945	745	80	4	661	90
WWII: Soutwest Pacific	1942	1,035	178	25	832	80
	1943	1,229	171	12	1,046	84
	1944	1,013	139	34	840	83
	1945	990	99	48	843	85
Korea	1950 ¹	1,526	242	460	824	61
	1951	897	151	170	576	64
	1952	592	102	57	433	75
Vietnam	1965	484	67	62	355	73
	1966	547	76	75	396	72
	1967	515	69	84	362	70
	1968	523	70	120	333	64
	1969	459	63	87	309	67

1July-December only. Sources: (1) World War II: Morbidity and Mortality in the United States Army, 1940-1945. Preliminary Tables Based on Periodic Summary Reports, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. (2) Korea: Korea, A Summary of Medical Experience, July 1950-December 1952. Reprinted from Health of the Army, January, February, and March 1953, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. (3) Vietnam: Health of the Army, May 1966, May 1967, May 1968, May 1969, May 1970, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army.

of making predictable the parameters of various disease problems at particular points in time. The curves depicting the monthly rates per 1,000 per year of those diseases having greatest impact on military operations reveal that, as the Medical Department effort became established and routinized, the annual rates fell, month by month, very closely together. Thus, the 1968 and 1969 curves for malaria, for example, were almost superimposed upon each other. (Chart 6) Not only was disease being controlled but, if preventive measures were properly implemented, its incidence could be forecast with increasing accuracy, and it therefore became a variable for which the field commander could account in planning combat operations.

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(Medical Support of the US Army in Vietnam)

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