Photo By Tommy Lamkin | SILVER SPRING, Md. (May 29, 2026) Operating under Navy Medicine Research & Development...... read more read more
Operating under Navy Medicine Research & Development (NMR&D), Naval Medical Research Units (NAMRU) EURAFCENT, INDO PACIFIC and SOUTH form a worldwide network focused on early detection of infectious disease threats and rapid scientific response in regions where outbreaks are most likely to emerge. The missions of these commands strengthen global health security and warfighter readiness through forward-deployed surveillance, scientific collaboration, vaccine and therapeutic development and outbreak response operations across multiple overseas areas of responsibility (AORs).
“Navy Medicine’s research units operate as a globally-distributed network of laboratories conducting infectious disease surveillance and applied research in close partnership with host nations and allied health systems,” said Capt. Guillermo Pimentel, deputy commander, Naval Medical Research Command.
Each of NMR&D’s overseas laboratories represent decades of sustained collaboration and are uniquely positioned to identify emerging disease threats at their source while translating field observations into operationally-relevant medical insight for the joint force.
Indo-Pacific AOR Partnerships Grow and Strengthen Regional Surveillance
NAMRU INDO PACIFIC, headquartered in Singapore, maintains a broad network of partner-nation laboratories and surveillance sites throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania. The command’s research focuses on multiple diseases of operational relevance, such as dengue, malaria, influenza and other respiratory and gastrointestinal pathogens that pose a risk to force readiness.
Recent initiatives have expanded the command’s scientific partnerships in Malaysia through collaboration with the University of Malaysia Sabah and the National Defence University of Malaysia, reinforcing regional infectious disease surveillance and research capacity. NAMRU INDO PACIFIC also recently established a detachment at the Australian Defence Force’s Malaria and Infectious Disease Institute in Brisbane, executing critical projects alongside operational forces at the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin and Exercise Balikatan, 2026.
“These efforts deliver actionable, region-specific information to senior leaders at USINDOPACOM, PACFLT and MARFORPAC, all aimed at reducing the impact of infectious diseases to the warfighter,” said Capt. Nicholas Martin, commanding officer of NAMRU INDO PACIFIC
Martin emphasized that these partnerships remain critical to efforts in delivering and maintaining early warning capabilities to senior leaders and in supporting regional health security.
NAMRU SOUTH Continues Long-Standing Regional Mission
NAMRU SOUTH, headquartered in Lima, Peru, oversees a decades-long mission of infectious disease surveillance, applied research and scientific collaboration across eight countries in Central and South America.
Laboratories in Iquitos, Peru and Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras work in partnership with military allies, to detect emerging diseases including dengue, malaria, diarrheal diseases and antimicrobial-resistant infections, closer to where they originate and evaluate medical countermeasures in operationally relevant environments.
“We continue to build on decades of collaboration,” said Capt. Hak Auth, commanding officer of NAMRU SOUTH, “serving not only as the U.S. Navy’s largest overseas medical research lab but also as forward-deployed scientific ambassadors supporting regional and global health security.”
Forward-deployed Surveillance by NAMRU EURAFCENT Supports Operational Readiness
NAMRU EURAFCENT supports operations across the EUCOM, CENTCOM and AFRICOM AORs, focusing on infectious disease threats in austere, deployed environments.
The command conducts surveillance and applied research on operationally relevant pathogens, ensuring early detection and mitigation of disease threats that can degrade mission effectiveness.
“Our work demonstrates the value of forward-deployed infectious disease surveillance in enabling early detection and response across multiple operational theaters,” said Capt. Michael Prouty, commanding officer of NAMRU EURAFCENT.
Prouty said those capabilities directly support warfighter readiness in environments where rapid identification of biological threats remains essential to mission success.
Recent NMR&D efforts have expanded international collaboration through formal agreements and scientific exchanges designed to improve interoperability, surveillance coordination and operational medical research across multiple regions, including new partnership initiatives in the Middle East and Africa.
Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: A Global Concern
Pimentel has emphasized how recent outbreaks continue to demonstrate the operational impact infectious disease threats can have on both military readiness and civilian populations worldwide. He pointed to major global health events over the past two decades, including respiratory disease pandemics and the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where he was forward deployed during the response effort.
“That experience reinforced the importance of sustained surveillance networks and rapid scientific adaptation,” he said. “Our overseas laboratories help ensure the joint force and our partners are better prepared before emerging infectious disease threats turn into operational threats.”
He added that ongoing Ebola surveillance and research in parts of Africa continues to demonstrate the importance of early detection, international partnerships and laboratory capabilities. “Emerging infectious disease threats remain a persistent operational reality,” he said. “These overseas laboratories ensure the joint force and our partners abroad are better prepared before outbreaks escalate into larger operational challenges.”
Across all three overseas NMR&D commands, NAMRU scientists collaborate with host-nation researchers, international partners and academic institutions to produce peer-reviewed infectious disease research that informs both military medicine and global public health. These partnerships support a continuous pipeline of field surveillance-to-laboratory validation and scientific publication, helping translate operational findings into actionable medical knowledge that enhances force health protection worldwide.
NMR&D, a global collective of eight commands, conducts research in support of Navy, Marine Corps and joint U.S. warfighter health, readiness and lethality, across a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. NMR&D studies infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, directed energy health effects, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology and behavioral sciences.
| Date Taken: | 05.29.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2026 07:01 |
| Story ID: | 566832 |
| Location: | SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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