- Naval Medical Research Unit Two
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Naval Medical Research Unit Two Active 1944 Country 
United States of AmericaBranch 
United States NavyRole NAMRU-2 is the primary source of infectious diseases research in the Asia/Pacific region for the US Navy. Part of Bureau of Medicine and surgery (BUMED) Garrison/HQ Pearl Harbor Naval BaseHonolulu, Hawaii Commanders Current
commanderCaptain Gail L. Hathaway Naval Medical Research Unit Two (NAMRU-2) is a biomedical research laboratory of the US Navy located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In addition the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated NAMRU-2 the WHO Collaborating Center for Emerging Diseases for Southeast Asia. The modern mission of the NAMRUs is threefold: (1) to investigate prophylactic agents such as vaccines and pharmaceuticals against tropical infectious diseases which cause severe mortality or morbidity to the US military member in the deployed environment. Generally the focus of study is ”orphan” illnesses with little or no investment by major pharmaceutical companies and include parasitic infection such as malaria and leishmaniasis, viral diseases such as dengue fever and other arboviruses, and bacterial illnesses like traveler’s diarrhea (ETEC, campylobacter, shigella). (2) to augment public health and military medical infrastructure of host and partner nations by assisting in surveillance of outbreaks and providing laboratory surge capacity during pandemics. (3) to provide assistance in training host nation scientists in epidemiologic techniques or modern laboratory molecular biology methods. Via these collaborations with partner nations, the NAMRU gets to conduct research on diseases that threaten troops on deployment but are not commonly seen in the US, and to get advanced notice of impending pandemics such as avian influenza that might affect military operational readiness. The host nation benefits by getting access to state of the art treatments and protection against diseases endemic to their country and a more robust public health infrastructure and better trained microbiology and physician population. This results in both military and political benefits to both nations and as such all NAMRU personnel are considered diplomats and counted as members of the US embassy in the host country.
Contents
History
NAMRU-2 was founded as Naval Medical Research Unit 2, at Rockefeller University in New York City in 1944 with Captain Thomas Rivers as commanding officer. It moved to Guam in 1945 to study medical problems of the Navy and Marine Corps during World War II pacific operations. In 1946, NAMRU-2 was redesignated the U.S. Naval Institute of Tropical Medicine (NITM)reflecting its focus on tropical infections of interest to the military such as malaria and Dengue fever. In 1947 NAMRU-2 developed a therapeutic regimen for cholera utilizing whole blood and plasma-specific gravity as guides, this work was a breakthrough in determining life-saving extracellular fluid requirements. NITM was disestablished shortly thereafter however. In 1955 Commander Robert Allan Phillips convinced US naval leadership that a research presence was needed in the pacific region. NAMRU-2 was reestablished in Taipei, Taiwan in 1955 with now Captain Phillips as its commanding officer. Phillips would remain as commander for the next 10 years. NAMRU-2 would respond to Cholera epidemics in Bangkok Thailand in 1958 and Sulawesi Indonesia and the Philippines in 1961, where it became a world leader in cholera research and treatment. In 1961 it established a collaborative research site at San Lazaro Hospital in Manila to assist in the El tor cholera outbreak in the Philippines, here several key hypotheses of correct intravenous fluid rehydration for cholera treatment were proven. In 1966, NAMRU-2 opened a detachment at the Naval Support Activity Hospital in Da Nang, South Vietnam. It was here that Lieutenant Myron Tong performed some of his seminal research into pathogens infecting combat wounds resulting in the first descriptions of acinetobacter baumannii infection in combat casualties. The research detachment would remain until 1970 when it was disestablished. In 1969 researchers at NAMRU-2 would be the first to demonstrate the role of attenuated Rubella vaccine in preventing naturally acquired disease in man. In 1970, NAMRU-2 would establish a detachment in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1979, U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Peoples Republic of China resulted in the relocation of the NAMRU-2 Command from Taipei to Manila, Philippines and in 1990 due to political upheaval and possible threats to US personnel it was again relocated to Jakarta, Indonesia. The facility in Jakarta was located in 62,000 square feet of laboratory, office and storage spaces in three buildings within the Indonesian Ministry of Health, National Institutes of Health (Badan LITBANGKES) compound. In the 1990s NAMRU-2 performed cutting edge research on the use of primaquine as primary prophylaxis for plasmodium falciparum malaria in Javanese men living in Irian Jaya. In 2010 the government of Indonesia asked that NAMRU-2 be closed and the unit was relocated to Pearl Harbor Hawaii. NAMRU-2 also currently operates detachments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and within the Office of Defense Cooperation, U.S. Embassy Singapore
Current Activities
- Surveillance of febrile illness
- Surveillance of avian influenza
- Investigation of Shigellosis morbidity
- Investigation of drug resistant malaria
References
A Legacy in 20th-Century Medicine: Robert Allan Phillips and the Taming of Cholera
Tong MJ Spetic Complications of War Wounds
Indonesia Turns Screw More: Booting Out US Naval Medical Laboratory?
External links
Categories:- United States military research facilities
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