What it is
STANAG 6568 is the NATO standardization agreement covering shipboard hygiene and preventive medicine in NATO naval operations. Like every STANAG, it is not itself a technical specification: it is the agreement by which participating nations commit to implement a publication, and here that publication is AMedP-4.15, Edition A. The risk management principles and procedures for on-board hygiene and preventive medicine live in AMedP-4.15, not in this cover, which records only the commitment to apply them.
What ratifying nations agree to
Participating nations agree to implement AMedP-4.15, Edition A, and to apply the risk management principles and procedures it describes. They also agree to inform other participating navies whenever they are unable to meet the requirements AMedP-4.15 prescribes, so a gap in one nation's implementation is expected to be visible to the others rather than left silent.
How implementation actually works
A nation is treated as having implemented the agreement once it has transmitted the necessary orders or instructions to the authorities and units concerned, and AMedP-4.15 specifically is considered implemented once a nation has updated its own procedures for on-board hygiene and preventive medicine. In practice that means four things: a standardized approach to hygiene and health-safety conditions for on-board personnel; carrying those requirements through every stage of a vessel's life, from the design and commissioning phases, through the operational phase, and during maintenance; telling personnel of other nations embarked on their vessels what level of hygiene and health-risk control is proposed for a mission; and taking appropriate and sufficient measures to control health risks during NATO naval operations. Both ratification responses and implementation details are recorded through NATO's electronic reporting tool and held in the NATO Standardization Documents Database (NSDD).
Review and what it does not cover
The STANAG is reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, the directive that governs how NATO standardization documents are produced and maintained, and the result of that review is recorded in the NSDD. It names no other related document and supersedes nothing. The document itself gives no further technical detail: inspection points, hygiene thresholds and procedures for disinfection or pest control, where they exist, are matters for AMedP-4.15 rather than for this agreement.
Who holds it and where it sits
STANAG 6568 is published by the NATO Standardization Office (NSO), a NATO non-classified document issued free of charge and not sold. It can be obtained from the NSDD or through national standardization authorities, and any reproduction should acknowledge NATO. It is supervised under NATO's medical standardization structure: COMEDS, MCMedSB, MedStd, MHC, MedN P.