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Reportable Medical Events at Military Health System Facilities Through Week 5, Ending February 3, 2024

Image of RMEs. Reportable Medical Events are documented in the Disease Reporting System internet by health care providers and public health officials throughout the Military Health System.

3/1/2024 By: Matthew W. R. Allman, MPH; Anthony R. Marquez, MPH; Katherine S. Kotas, MPH

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Reportable Medical Events are documented in the Disease Reporting System internet by health care providers and public health officials throughout the Military Health System for the monitoring, control, and prevention of the occurrence and spread of diseases of public health interest or readiness importance. These reports are reviewed by each service’s public health surveillance hub. The DRSi collects reports on over 70 different RMEs, including infectious and non-infectious conditions, outbreak reports, STI risk surveys, and tuberculosis contact investigation reports. A complete list of RMEs is available in the 2022 Armed Forces Reportable Medical Events Guidelines and Case Definitions.1 Data reported in these tables are considered provisional and do not represent conclusive evidence until case reports are fully validated. 

Click on the table to access a 508-compliant PDF version

Total active component cases reported per week are displayed for the top five RMEs for the previous year. Each month, the graph is updated with the top five RMEs, and is presented with the current month’s (January 2024) top five RMEs, which may differ from previous months. COVID-19 is excluded from these graphs due to changes in reporting and case definition updates in 2023. 

This graph comprises five lines on the horizontal, or x-, axis that depict case counts for the five most frequent reportable medical event conditions among active component service members during the past 52 weeks. Chlamydia remains the most common reportable medical condition, with counts consistently around 300 cases per week. Gonorrhea is generally the second-most common reported condition, averaging approximately 80 cases per week. Syphilis is typically the third-most common condition, averaging approximately 20 cases per week, but was supplanted by cold weather injuries, which rose dramatically in the first two weeks of 2024 to become the third-most common RME, slightly ahead of syphilis. Norovirus, which was generally the fourth-most frequent RME in 2023, is the fifth-most reported medical event on the graph, consistently around 20 cases per month.

For questions about this report, please contact the Disease Epidemiology Branch at the Defense Centers for Public Health–Aberdeen. Email: dha.apg.pub-health-a.mbx.disease-epidemiologyprogram13@health.mil 

Authors' Affiliation

Defense Health Agency, Disease Epidemiology Branch, Defense Centers for Public Health–Aberdeen 

References

  1. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division. Armed Forces Reportable Medical Events. Accessed Feb. 28, 2024. https://health.mil/Reference-Center/Publications/2022/11/01/Armed-Forces-Reportable-Medical-Events-Guidelines 
  2. Defense Manpower Data Center. Department of Defense Active Duty Military Personnel by Rank/Grade of Service. Accessed Feb. 28, 2024. https://dwp.dmdc.osd.mil/dwp/app/dod-data-reports/workforce-reports 
  3. Defense Manpower Data Center. Armed Forces Strength Figures for January 31, 2023. Accessed Feb. 28, 2024. https://dwp.dmdc.osd.mil/dwp/app/dod-data-reports/workforce-reports 
  4. Navy Medicine. Surveillance and Reporting Tools–DRSI: Disease Reporting System Internet. Accessed Feb. 28, 2024. https://www.med.navy.mil/Navy-Marine-Corps-Public-Health-Center/Preventive-Medicine/Program-and-Policy-Support/Disease-Surveillance/DRSI

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