Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by attacks of airway obstruction followed by suffocation. A young man’s history of a diagnosis of bronchial asthma is a strict contraindication for military service. Despite the fact that it is impossible to join the army with asthma , every year there are cases of conscription of guys with this formidable chronic disease into military service.
Can a person join the army with asthma?
The work of the conscription medical commission is strictly regulated by special provisions adopted in our country by public authorities. The possibility of serving in the army in the presence of various diseases is regulated by the article “Schedule of diseases”.
According to the article “Schedule of Diseases”, developed specifically for setting marks on pathology on a military ID, bronchial asthma of any severity is a strict contraindication for military service. This pathology is in article number 52, and the commentary to the article clearly states that a conscript with asthma cannot receive a category of fitness higher than “B – exempt from draft in peacetime”, even if the disease has gone into deep remission. “Schedule of diseases” is an official document approved by the government of the Russian Federation and serves as an appendix to the regulation on military medical examination.
Despite the documented ban on service with bronchial asthma, a young man can be drafted into the army. This can happen for the following reasons:
- If a conscript has been diagnosed with an allergic form of asthma, the draft board may consider this diagnosis as insufficient reason to release him from his military duty to his homeland. This is because allergies are often a seasonal or local condition.
- The young man, passing the commission, kept silent about his condition. This usually happens when a conscript fell ill immediately in front of the commission, and having independently coped with several episodes of asthma, decided that “this will pass.”
- The medical commission sent the conscript for an additional examination, but he did not pass it on time and continued to avoid appearing at the military registration and enlistment office.
- The negligent attitude of the commission to its duties and deliberate concealment of research results and diagnosis. A similar situation can occur when the conscript’s illness is not fully confirmed, and the military registration and enlistment office needs to recruit a certain number of young citizens.
How to confirm the diagnosis for the military registration and enlistment office
Very often, parents, unknowingly treating their child, create additional problems for him at the draft age. They send their children, suspecting they have various dangerous diseases, to private clinics for diagnosis. When young people come to the military registration and enlistment office with certificates from commercial diagnostic centers, it turns out that such a certificate is not valid for the draft board. The young man will be sent to be re-examined at the municipal institution. In order not to get into such an uncomfortable situation, it is necessary to know the procedure for studying impaired functions and dangerous pathologies and the final diagnosis for young people of military age.
Indeed, if you suspect the development of bronchial asthma in a young person, you can first contact a paid diagnostic center and be examined there. It is recommended to contact a narrow specialist – a pulmonologist. He will prescribe several types of studies to confirm the diagnosis:
- study of the function of external respiration: spirometry, peak flowmetry ;
- the presence of allergy cells – eosinophils, in sputum and blood;
- allergic tests;
- specific clinical picture.
Based on the results of the examination, a diagnosis will be made and the degree of the disease will be highlighted. However, having received the documents in hand, it is necessary to contact the local doctor at the polyclinic at the place of residence, so that he makes the appropriate marks in the medical record, which is stored at the site in the clinic.
The draft board takes into account medical documents only from state medical and preventive institutions.
When can a grace period be granted?
The option, when the military registration and enlistment office issued a deferral from the army, instead of a military ID with a category “B” or “D” for an asthmatic person, can be only if the diagnosis is not fully confirmed. A deferral from military service is given to asthmatics for the time of re-examination and installation or refutation of the diagnosis.
If the diagnosis is not confirmed, the category of fitness from “G – temporarily unsuitable”, will be changed to “A – fit for military service” or “B – fit with restrictions” and the conscript will go to serve the homeland. If the medical commission establishes a diagnosis of bronchial asthma, whatever its degree (from mild to severe), the conscript does not go to serve.
When a conscript is considered unfit
There are two categories, after which a conscript will not be considered fit for military service:
- B – released from military service in peacetime;
- D – completely removed from service in the armed forces.
Category “B” is put on the military card for patients with mild and moderate asthma. It is believed that during the period of hostilities, an asthmatic person may be in the ranks of the armed forces.
Also, the category “B” will be given to a serviceman who has contracted bronchial asthma directly in the armed forces, after he passes a military commission in a hospital at a military unit.
Category “D – completely exempted from service in the RF Armed Forces” is given to patients with severe asthma. In this case, a man, even in conditions of hostilities, will not be able to effectively resist the enemy, since a severe degree of asthma significantly affects a person’s life. With this form of the disease, attacks occur every day, often at night. And the physical activity of an asthmatic with a severe degree of pathology is limited.
What to do if an asthmatic is taken into the army
The situation when a guy with asthma is taken into the army is unlikely, since an asthmatic is a “headache” for commanders. An attack can happen at any time and cause harm not only to the patient himself, but also to those around him. For example, an asthmatic person will be driving or throwing grenades at a shooting range and will begin to suffocate, in such a situation anything can happen.
If the situation with the appeal of an asthma patient has occurred, it is necessary to contact the committee of soldiers’ mothers. The lawyers of this organization have been dealing with the armed forces of the Russian Federation for more than one year and will help resolve the issue of a second medical commission and dismissal from service. In extreme cases, you need to go to court. If a person is indeed diagnosed, they will be guaranteed to be sent home from the army.
In general, most cases of conscription of asthmatics into the army are really the fault of the commission or the fault of the conscript himself. And any adequate head of the medical unit, suspecting asthma in a serviceman, will send him to a medical commission, according to the results of which the question of his further service will be decided.