Editorial
Dear Reader!
Esteemed Comrades!
Diseases originating from tropical and subtropical regions have long posed a significant challenge to military medicine. Throughout history, parasitic, viral, and bacterial infections have often caught deployment contingents unprepared, leading to morbidity and mortality rates that have frequently been decisive in determining victory or defeat. Even today, scientific expeditions, private travel, and commercial shipping remain affected. Consequently, it is only logical that maritime medicine, as well as travel and tropical medicine, are closely interconnected and play a crucial role in the Bundeswehr’s global operations. This applies to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of individual illnesses, as well as the management of disease outbreaks.
The foundation of today’s tropical medicine in the Bundeswehr was laid in the early 1990s by the team led by Dr. Gerhard Boecken at the Naval Institute of Maritime Medicine. Through professionalism, early expertise, and necessary persistence, this group paved the way for the sophisticated training of young medical officers in Germany and hospitals in the tropics. Brazil, Ghana, Tanzania, Thailand, and Senegal are just a few of the countries where the required training months are completed, ultimately leading to the “additional qualification in tropical medicine.”
Today, in 2026, tropical medicine in the Bundeswehr is characterised by clinical and scientific work in a civil-military collaboration. In Hamburg, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, and the Bundeswehr Hospital have been working successfully and efficiently together for 20 years. The Berlin Bundeswehr Hospital cooperates with the Charité University Medicine. It is, therefore, only logical that these two Bundeswehr hospitals take the lead in shaping infectious and tropical medicine across all Bundeswehr hospitals within the clinical military medicine network.
In the future, it will also be essential to consider the impact of climate change on the disease and pathogen spectrum in Germany. With the current spread of various vectors, the increased occurrence of “vector-borne diseases” in Central Europe is not a matter of “if,” but “when.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exemplarily demonstrated how inadequately prepared we are for such events clinically, diagnostically, from a public policy perspective, and in terms of communication. As many diseases can no longer be regionally contained, it is logical to continue developing tropical and infectious medicine together. This applies across all sectors, including inpatient and outpatient care, as well as public health responsibilities.
Insights from Ukraine also demonstrate that multi-resistant pathogens present health systems, particularly in crises and warfare, with highly complex challenges. Therefore, in military medicine, alongside trauma care topics, we must not lose sight of infectious and tropical diseases. Today, it is crucial to practice controlling these diseases by considering all aspects of prevention, diagnosis, and therapy, as well as outbreak management in civil-military partnerships, to prepare ourselves strategically.
Together with our civilian partners, we approach these tasks in an evidence-based, professional, and forward-thinking manner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf for 20 years of appreciative and fruitful cooperation. This explicitly includes our partners in the Global South, from whom we learn as equals. Together with the team of our Bundeswehr Hospital, I look forward to many more years of collaboration.
Dr. Thomas Harbaum
Brigadier General
Commander and Medical Director of the Bundeswehr Hospital Hamburg