Construction of a biological risk scale for the military during external operations

Résumé 0

As part of the activities of the Health Surveillance and Planning Department of the Epidemiology and Public Health Center of the French Armed Forces, a simple tool capable of assessing biological risks for soldiers during external operations has been developed. For this, research on scientific databases and search engines was carried out. This analysis revealed that a large number of publications were available but none related to the military world. It was decided to build a five-dimensional scale taking into account all aspects of infectious risk in theaters of operation. For each dimension, thirty-two sub-dimensions were associated with different score-weighted scenarios. In parallel, a risk matrix was also constructed in order to associate the score obtained with risk assumptions. This scale was applied to two pathogens (malaria and anthrax) in two countries where the French armed forces are present (Mali and Côte d’Ivoire). Moderate risk has been achieved for these diseases in these countries. A number of biases have emerged in the development of this scale, and work is underway to try to improve them. The construction of such a scale will offer military decision makers access to a tool that incorporates an overview of various risk factors which can affect military operations, allowing alerts to be based on level of threat.