WRAIR-Africa monitors for disease threats at African Lion 2025

[Link] U.S. Army Maj. Luis Pow Sang, middle, chief of microbiology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research-Africa, teaches Soldiers how to use "BioFire" equipment for disease surveillance during 2025's African Lion (AL) exercise. AL25, the largest annual military exercise in Africa, took place from April 14 to May 23, 2025. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) on behalf of U.S. Africa Command with over 10,000 troops from more than 50 nations, including seven NATO allies, across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. This exercise aims to bolster military readiness, enhance lethality and foster stronger partnerships, ultimately improving joint capabilities in complex multidomain environments to enable participating forces to deploy, fight and win. (Photo courtesy DVIDS) (Photo Credit: DVIDS) VIEW ORIGINAL Back to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research-Africa (WRAIR-Africa) conducted disease surveillance in support of African Lion 2025 in Morocco, May 9-19. African Lion is U.S. Africa Command's largest annual exercise. This year, the exercise surpassed 10,000 participants from more than 20 countries, including seven NATO allies. The exercise is designed to strengthen multinational cooperation as well as regional security. WRAIR-Africa supported the exercise as part of a disease surveillance team funded by Global Emergency Infectious Surveillance (GEIS) and comprised of experts from multiple units trained to detect threats to force health. The team included U.S. Army Maj. John Eads, chief of entomology at WRAIR-Africa, and U.S. Army Maj. Luis Pow Sang, chief of microbiology at WRAIR-Africa. "This was the first time WRAIR-Africa conducted biosurveillance at African Lion," Sang said. "GEIS compiled a team of experts with top-of-the-line equipment that was best suited to monitor for disease threats at the exercise." The team conducted vector surveillance from multiple locations across the exercise, including the collection and analysis of mosquitoes and ticks. Additionally, role 1 medics collected samples from U.S. service members who showed disease symptoms. All these samples were tested for a variety of possible pathogens. "The disease surveillance team collected common disease vectors and received de-identified human samples from the medics for analysis," Sang said. "The team used three different platforms to evaluate the samples for possible disease threats. This maximized our ability to identify disease threats and to evaluate the pros and cons of each platform while scanning for more than 50 different possible pathogens." Surveillance information learned from U.S. service member samples was shared with leadership at the end of the exercise. This exercise successfully demonstrated the ability to deploy this novel, multilayered approach to pathogen detection in the field, but preparation started long before there were boots on the ground. [Link] U.S. Army Maj. John Eads, left, chief of entomology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research-Africa, and U.S. Army Spc. Campos, right, analyze mosquitos using the artificial intelligence-assisted "IDX" system for disease surveillance 2025's African Lion (AL) exercise. AL25, the largest annual military exercise in Africa, took place from April 14 to May 23, 2025. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) on behalf of U.S. Africa Command with over 10,000 troops from more than 50 nations, including seven NATO allies, across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. This exercise aims to bolster military readiness, enhance lethality and foster stronger partnerships, ultimately improving joint capabilities in complex multidomain environments to enable participating forces to deploy, fight and win. (Photo courtesy DVIDS) (Photo Credit: DVIDS) VIEW ORIGINAL "With this being our first time conducting biosurveillance at African Lion, there were plenty of logistical hurdles," Eads said. "As an example, we had no means of getting our equipment on the ground preceding our arrival, so every member of the team had to hand-carry their equipment into the site. Sometimes this introduces the risk of forgetting something small that hinders the operation - like losing a cord or missing an adaptor - but the entire team was fully mission capable, and this effort was a fantastic success." When it comes to incorporating disease surveillance for these military exercises, the required lead time to plan the logistics may be long, but the team is already thinking ahead to how they can enhance this capability in the future. "We are refining our plans for future biosurveillance initiatives," Eads said. "Conducting exercise surveillance like this enhances preventative measures in the field, protecting force health from the pathogens that we find. We want to expand those benefits by collaborating with the host country to get in earlier and do pre-exercise surveillance." For more information about WRAIR's disease surveillance and other capabilities, to go https://wrair.health.mil/Global-Research/ About African Lion African Lion 25, the largest annual military exercise in Africa, took place from April 14 to May 23, 2025. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) on behalf of U.S. Africa Command with over 10,000 troops from more than 50 nations, including seven NATO allies, across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. This exercise aims to bolster military readiness, enhance lethality and foster stronger partnerships, ultimately improving joint capabilities in complex multidomain environments to enable participating forces to deploy, fight and win. Additional African Lion content can be found on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS). About SETAF-AF SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command campaign objectives. Follow SETAF-AF on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn & DVIDS