Importance of Preventive Medicine. Importance of Preventive Medicine. Internally Peer Reviewed 1.
Prevention of disease is one of the most important functions of any military medical service.
In every war for which statistics are recorded, military forces have lost more personnel to disease than to direct combat with opposing forces. Malaria incidence threatened the entire Asian-Pacific campaign, and in one instance in the Solomon Islands, caused eight times more casualties than the enemy. His top generals were medically evacuated just before and during the battle due to amoebic dysentery. Rommel himself was not present when the battle began due to hepatitis. When U.S. Marines were first used as a stabilizing force in Lebanon in 1958, the force was almost completely incapacitated with dysentery within 2 weeks of entering that country.