Dengue fever with hemorrhagic features in a special forces soldier

Military operations are conducted in a variety of settings. Some settings provide significant U.S. resources for preventive, primary, urgent, and emergency or trauma care. Other operations consist of small numbers of personnel relying on limited internal, improvised, and/or host nation resources. Special Forces often conduct their missions in rural, austere, and remote settings with a small "medical footprint." Often the supported government has difficulty providing essential services, including medical care. To address this, U.S. Special Forces select and train highly motivated individuals to perform medical duties in an exceptionally austere environment devoid of resources. This case highlights those services and the medical decision-making process required to provide medical care to approach the standard of care in the United States. In this case, the affected individual had dengue fever.