The Army Malaria Institute: Fifty years of esteemed 'vampire' service

• Published in: Journal of military and veterans' health. Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 19 - 22
• Main Author: J Pearn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canberra Department of Defence 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Australia; Australian Army; Medical care; Methodology; Mosquitoes as carriers of disease; Soldiers
• ISSN: 1835-1271

The Golden Jubilee (2016) of the Army Malaria Institute is a significant event in the history not only of the Australian Defence Force, but that of the Australian nation. The Institute's research - entomological, pharmacological, epidemiological and clinical - has been crucial in the maintenance of optimal healthcare for every operational and humanitarian deployment of Australian servicemen and women since the Second World War. The work of the Institute depends on the diagnosis of both clinical and experimental malaria by blood smear analysis. This basic procedure, ubiquitous to all clinical and preventive health endeavours, has meant that every patient with a fever and every malaria research volunteer are subject to serial bloodtaking. The nickname, "Vampire", was given by apprehensive soldiers to those medics, nurses, pathology technicians and AMI researchers, taking blood. In the Vietnam War, CALLSIGN VAMPIRE and the VAMPIRE PAD (helipad) assumed great significance as a place of rescue, resuscitation and optimal medical treatment. Since the Vietnam War, "Vampires" entered the lexicon of Australian soldiers' neologisms. Such is recalled as a living and enduring witness of 50 years of esteemed service - that every serviceman and woman might be protected from malaria, still in the twenty-first century a major killer of humankind.