Biological Security of Polish Military Contingents Outside the Country

Abstract

Polish soldiers have been participating in peacekeeping and stabilization missions around the world for several decades under the auspices of the UN, OSCE, NATO and the EU. They were first sent to Korea in 1953 to oversee a ceasefire between the North and South Koreas. Since then, nearly 70,000 Polish troops have taken part in 58 peace and humanitarian multinational missions on different continents (SKMP ONZ, 2019), which required from them great skills to cooperate with soldiers from other countries, to overcome cultural barriers, as well as adaptation to difficult, often completely different than in Europe, climatic conditions, and to create a system of safeguards and procedures against dangerous tropical diseases. Due to these reasons, biological safety, i.e., medical, sanitary-hygienic, and anti-epidemic security of the contingent, plays a significant role in every mission because it allows the soldiers and civilian personnel stay healthy in an unfavorable and different climate and environmental conditions.