Rubella outbreak, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, 1995: a clash of two preventive strategies

An outbreak of rubella occurred among visiting German troops involved in a combined military exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in April 1995. Public health and military operational concerns centered on the significant contact the German soldiers had had with host battalion dependents and the impact of the outbreak on the exercise. Ten of the 120 German soldiers were found to be nonimmune; six of these soldiers developed clinical rubella. The four nonimmune soldiers who did not develop skin rashes had received serum immune globulin within 12 hours of identification of the index case. The impact of this outbreak on the Fort Bragg community and its military operations, and the methods used to control the outbreak and salvage the military mission, are described.