Vaccines are important tools that help protect the health of the men and women who serve their nation in uniform. The disease threat may spread person-to-person in recruit training. It may be a disease acquired by consuming contaminated food or water or from the bite of an infected mosquito during deployments. The threat may be the hostile use of a biological warfare agent. Vaccines provide a safe and effective means of countering the threats to personal health and military readiness.

Healthy troops complete their missions. Vaccines will keep you and your team healthy.

• Vaccines shield you from dangerous germs. These germs can kill you or cause lasting harm. Vaccines prevent infections, such as tetanus, typhoid fever, measles, yellow fever, smallpox, and anthrax, to name just a few.
• Vaccines keep units fit to fight. We fight as a team. All team members must be healthy.
• Vaccines benefit both individuals and units. Vaccines keep people healthy so they can live better lives. Vaccines keep people healthy so they can do their mission. Vaccines help you return home healthy.

Vaccines have kept troops healthy since the days of George Washington.

• George Washington protected his troops from smallpox in 1777 using a forerunner of vaccination called “variolation”. We lost the Battle of Quebec in 1776, because our troops weren't protected against smallpox. Americans suffered 5,500 smallpox casualties among 10,000 colonial troops. The task force commander, Major General John Thomas, died of smallpox.
• From 1777 to today, vaccines prevented American troops from dangerous infections. Typhoid vaccine reduced typhoid casualties from 20,000 in Spanish-American War of 1898 to just 1,500 in World War I. During all of World War II, only 12 cases of tetanus occurred among vaccinated US troops, but numerous tetanus deaths occurred among the unvaccinated Germany Army (Wehrmacht).
• Vaccines are among the most important accomplishments in medicine. Vaccines have saved more lives throughout the world than any other medical invention. Vaccines have saved more lives than antibiotics or surgery. Only clean water has saved more lives than vaccines.
• Immunization and its history in the U.S. Armed Forces is discussed in greater detail in an article entitled Immunization to Protect the U.S. Armed Forces: Heritage, Current Practice, Prospects.
  

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