Throughout the long history of armed conflict, disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) have always caused much greater morbidity and mortality than battle injury—a situation that has endured throughout recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan where DNBI has continued to be responsible for the bulk of presentations to supporting medical services, both at Role 1 and to UK Role 3 medical treatment facilities. Infection, in its many and varied guises, is responsible for many of these cases and can present a significant challenge both to the capability of the Defence Medical Services and to the operational effectiveness of combat units. There is no reason to believe that this pattern will change in the time that remains before current operations draw to a close.

As UK Armed Forces return to contingency operations it is increasingly likely that small force elements will be deployed to diverse geographical locations where the challenges posed by infection will be different, requiring their medical support to use knowledge and skills that may be outside their previous experience.

This edition of the journal draws on the expertise and experience of the department of military medicine and others to focus attention on those infections that are most likely to be relevant to uniformed medical staff during future operations. Some of these are highlighted because they are common, such as respiratory and skin and soft tissue infection, while others such as malaria and hepatitis are likely to acquire greater importance as service personnel deploy to countries carrying greater risk of these infections.

Military infection and microbiology services are working ever more closely together and the establishment of a centre, linked to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and based at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, where consultants in Infectious Diseases and Sexual Health are based, uniformed specialty registrars are trained and military patients are treated is an important development that is also highlighted.

A detailed précis on tropical infection is outside the scope of this edition and those wishing to extend their knowledge and skills in this area are directed to the Military Infection and Tropical Medicine course which is to be re-established in 2013 and held bi-annually. Details regarding the course and application procedures can be found on the Joint Medical Command schedule of courses.

Infectious disease and other related areas rightly remain high on the research priority list of the Surgeon General and, as such, form one of the four main pillars of research effort within military medicine. Infection will not go away and we must be proactive and diligent in developing strategies for the prevention, identification and optimal management of infection within the future operational environment. Many of the authors who have contributed to this edition of the journal are playing important roles in realising this goal.