Force Health Protection Branch (FHPB)

former Deployment Health Surveillance Capability (DHSC)

Who we are

The mission of the Force Health Protection Branch (formerly Deployment Health Surveillance Capability) is to contribute to a better preparedness of the deployed NATO Forces against the threats of infectious disease and bioterrorist attacks. Therefore the FHPB is supporting the operational readiness of our soldiers in NATO deployments and strengthening the Force Health Protection efforts of the military medical services in NATO.

History

At the 2001 NATO Summit of the Heads of State and Government, held in Prague still under the impression of the terror attacks in the United States, decisive capability gaps were shown to exist within NATO. Among other issues, warnings were raised about the lack in capability for the near-real-time (NRT) detection of disease outbreaks and the determination of whether these outbreaks are to be attributed to the use of biological weaponry or to natural causes. This capability gap was considered to be of highest operational importance for NATO due to the fact that CBRN threats have always to be expected in asymmetric warfare and that in the current NATO operations diseases and non-battle injuries (DNBI) still represent the highest cause for the hospitalization of soldiers. In November 2006 during the 26th COMEDS Meeting the decision was made to establish a NATO Deployment Health Surveillance and Analysis Center.

At the beginning, the DHSC was a DEU/FRA bilateral capability, located in Munich in Germany. However, a solution was sought to make the DHSC accessible to other nations. Therefore, in 2011, the DHSC was affiliated to the NATO MILMED COE in Budapest as a satellite branch located in Munich. In December 2019 the name was changed to Force Health Protection Branch.