Military medical experts address evolving fight against battlefield infections
International experts and top minds in U.S. military medicine convened for a two-part plenary session addressing the hidden threat on past, present, and future warfighters: bacterial infections.
The panel discussion opened the 2026 Military Health Research Symposium held in Kissimmee, Florida, Aug. 3, to a crowd of military, academic, industry, and global partners dedicated to advancing military medical research.
Leveraging past advancements to protect warfighter health today
Army Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Clinton Murray, Joint Staff Surgeon, delivered a presentation titled, “A Dialogue Between Past, Present and Future: Combat-Related Injury Infections.”
He pointed to milestones like Florence Nightingale’s hospital sanitation, germ theory, and equipment sterilization — breakthroughs which continue to save lives today. Challenging a room of military medical researchers, scientists, academics and industry, leaders, he called on them to build on past lessons to improve warfighter health now and in the future.
“How do we learn these advances and not forget them?” said Murray. “How do we really advance this into the era where we manage bacterial infections at scale across the tyranny of distance and continue to drive complication, morbidity, and mortality lower and lower?”
Murray warned of one of military medicine's biggest threat: drug-resistant bacteria, a danger since drugs were first created.
To win the ongoing fight against evolving bacteria, he noted, military medicine must adapt its technology and logistics for the modern battlefield. As resistant bacteria pose a threat “all over the world,” he said, the annual symposium provided an opportunity to “make sure we're sharing these lessons, these insights, that information that you have."
The fight against drug resistance
Dr. Terry Rauch, acting deputy assistant secretary of war for health readiness policy and oversight, moderated the panel of experts from Ukraine’s military health system, academia, and the Joint Trauma System in a session titled, “Multidrug Resistant Organisms & Cellular Therapy for Battlefield Trauma.”
Lt. (Dr.) Roman Shtybel, an anesthesiologist for Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Brigade, explained how modern warfare turns multidrug-resistant organisms, known as MRDOs, into a global crisis. He described how bacteria can spread quickly from front-line trenches to civilian hospitals, and eventually across borders.
“Bacteria knows no boundaries,” concurred Hailie Uren, chief specialist of antimicrobial resistance and infection control for the public health center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Maj. (Dr.) Dmytro Samofalov, acting head of the Health Department for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, presented evidence that injured troops catch the most dangerous, resistant infections inside hospitals, not on the battlefield.
Mariana Svirchuk, executive director of the First Lviv Territorial Medical Union, and director of the School of Medicine at UNBROKEN University, added findings that when wounded Ukrainian soldiers evacuate to other European nations, they bring these highly resistant bacteria with them. This makes MDROs an urgent global health security threat, she said. “For clinicians, this means fewer effective treatment options, longer hospital stays, and much greater risk of complications.”
Harnessing scientific research to drive medical innovation
“If we want to push further, we need multifaceted studies that help us make decisions based on data and empiric experience,” said Shtybel. He added U.S. military medicine has paved the path for advancements in treatment: “This was very helpful … because of your great work in the decades before.”
Potential solutions expand beyond standard antibiotics. Dr. Shibani Pati, director of the Center for Research in Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapy and professor of laboratory medicine and surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, highlighted the potential of cell therapies to heal the body and fight infections.
To further this vital research, the Department of War co-funds the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Anthony Atala, professor and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, pointed to several Food and Drug Administration-approved products born from AFIRM-funded research, like skin regeneration technologies for burn victims and an artificial vascular graft for trauma.
Looking across the crowd, Svirchuk underscored the significance of collaboration at the symposium: “We still have important questions about antibiotic resistance, good healing, and long-term outcomes after combat trauma. I see the people who can help us and for us: clinicians, microbiologists, infection disease specialists, researchers, I truly believe that together we can generate the evidence our patient needs.”
Adapting the MDRO strategy to support readiness
Army Col. (Dr.) Jennifer Gurney, chief of the Joint Trauma System, closed the session with a sharp caution, comparing MRDO’s to other major threats to combat power such as a drone swarm.
“A drone swarm can overwhelm a highly capable defense,” she said. “MRDOs can overwhelm a single strategy."Gurney added if we continue to equip ourselves only with antibiotics and traditional wound infection care — we may find the best lines of defense quickly overwhelmed.
She urged the audience to stop thinking only about "killing bacteria." Instead, she pushed for a layered defense — ranging from managing a patient's natural bacteria to building a more prepared health system. Most importantly, protecting warfighters against MRDOs is essential to keeping them fit to fight.
“We must recognize the threat, change the timeline, and think about changing the strategy," said Gurney. “We must continue to adapt our strategy and approach MDRO like any other lethal battlefield threat.”
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