section, you should refer to Manual of Naval Preventive Medicine, NAVMED P-5010. FOOD-SERVICE SANITATION Food-borne illnesses represent an ever-present threat to the health and morale of our military personnel. To prevent food-borne illnesses, you will need to ensure that all foods are procured from approved sources and processed, prepared, and served with careful adherence to recommended sanitary practices. When assigned as a medical department representative for a command or station, you may be given the responsibility of inspecting food, food-service facilities, and investigating food-borne illness outbreaks. For guidance on safe time limits for keeping food, proper storage temperatures, and storage life of perishable and semi-perishable items, refer to tables in Naval Supply Publication 486. Training and Hygiene of Food-Service Personnel Food-service personnel should be thoroughly indoctrinated in personal hygiene and food sanitation procedures and in the methods and importance of preventing food-borne illness. Requirements for food service training are addressed in Food Service Training Program, SECNAVINST 4061.1. Food-Service Inspection Report Navy and Marine Corps food-service facilities are required to be inspected by a medical department representative, together with the food-service manager or officer or designated representative. The findings of the inspection are reported on a NAVMED Form 6240/1, Food Service Sanitation Inspection. A system has been established in which maximum defect points are awarded for each stated requirement. The inspector assigns an appropriate number of defect points up to the maximum possible and computes a sanitary compliance score (SCS). Complete step-by-step procedures for filing the report and computing the SCS are provided in the Manual of Naval Preventive Medicine, NAVMED P-5010. IMMUNIZATIONS AND COMMUNICABLE DISEASES Navy and Marine Corps personnel are exposed to a wide variety of environmental conditions, including climatic extremes, stressful situations, and close living quarters. Many of these personnel travel to foreign lands where conditions may not only be unsanitary, but where a high level of disease may also exist. Preventive medicine’s major role is to minimize disability by emphasizing immunization programs. Immunizations Vaccines used to protect Navy and Marine Corps personnel against certain diseases before exposure to infection are called prophylactic immunizations. Prophylactic immunizations are limited to very serious diseases for which effective and reliable immunizing agents have been developed. Immunizations procured for the Armed Forces are required to meet the minimum standards set by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Immunizations for Military Personnel Navy and Marine Corps personnel are required to be ready to deploy on a moment’s notice. To make sure personnel are prepared for deployment, you should review their immunization records on a routine basis, and, before deployments, also review BUMEDINST 6230.15, Immunizations and Chemoprophylaxis. Initial and booster dosages and routes of administra- tion are dictated by the vaccine manufacture, the U.S. Public Health Service Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP), or both. Communicable Diseases Communicable diseases, as the name implies, are diseases that may be transmitted from a carrier to a susceptible host. They may be transmitted from an infected person or animal or indirectly through an intermediate host, vector, or inanimate object. The illness produced is the result of infectious agents invading and multiplying in the host, or from the release of their toxins (poisons). An important step in the control of communicable disease is the expedious preparation and submission of the Medical Event Report. Instructions and requirements for reporting to local, state, national, and international health authorities can be found in the preface of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, NAVMED P-5038. In addition, you should follow instructions for the Medical Event Report (MER), BUMEDINST 6220.12, when reporting 10-4