CAMP VICTORY, BAGHDAD, Iraq When it comes to illness prevention, children typically have parent-types looking after their well-being. Some of these parental figures keep giving this type of nurturing even as their children become adults. Unfortunately, most troops deployed to Iraq don't have the luxury of having Mommy nearby to kiss their boo-boos away, or help them through a stomachache, or treat a bug bite. Luckily, troops in Iraq do have people looking out for their health " like guardians in disguise. They are the preventive medicine personnel who operate from various detachments and teams throughout the country.
In a nutshell, our mission is to take care of U.S. and Coalition forces' health by assessing health threats, recommending appropriate controls to lessen the threat and continuously monitoring to see if what we are doing is working, said Lt. Col. Steve Horosko, Force Health Protection Chief, Multi-National Corps -- Iraq surgeon's office. There are five, 12-15 person detachments or units in Iraq that operate in various forward operating bases. We have about 100 or so FOBs and camps throughout the country, and our standard is that a PM team visits each FOB or base camp once a month. Horosko said these teams normally consist of two or three enlisted Army PM specialists or Navy technicians, and possibly even an environmental science officer.
These teams have their work cut out for them and stay extremely busy, said Horosko. One of the many tasks they conduct is checking both bottled and bulk potable water. Horosko explained the water used in dining facilities and in most cases in our showers is potable water that has been purified by water purification units operated by KBR. However, some water, like that from faucets in existing hard-structured buildings, probably comes from the Iraqi municipal water system, which isn't potable by U.S. standards. The PM teams also monitor waste management, both solid and liquid, and also air quality. They make sure when something is burned, it is not harmful to the troops. Additionally, the teams check dining facilities to make sure standards are maintained.
Most of the DFACs are run by KBR, and if a team should find something wrong, KBR usually gets right on it, and they fix it very quickly, said Horosko. Most of the DFACs in-country are maintained at very high standards.
Perhaps one of the biggest tasks PM detachments have is preventing diseases such as leishmaniasis and malaria from becoming a problem by continuously monitoring the number of sand flies and mosquitoes in U.S. and Coalition areas, and taking steps to control them, Horosko said. KBR conducts most of the pest control activities in larger FOBs, but the PM detachments or units have this responsibility in smaller FOBs where KBR does not function.
Most of the samples we get come from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division's preventive medicine team located here at Camp Victory, said Spc. Kimberly A. Cupery, preventive medicine specialist with the 12th Medical Det. Cupery and her coworkers conduct preliminary testing on mosquitoes and sand flies to determine their sex.
First we determine the sex of the mosquito or sand fly, she said. Males are of no medical importance because only females bite and can carry disease. We actually don't have the means to test for leishmaniasis and malaria in-theater, so we send samples to the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in Maryland, or the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Although testing sand flies and mosquitoes for disease-causing organisms is not conducted in-country, the preventive medicine units collect a variety of insect samples for different reasons.
We collect sand fly and mosquito adults and mosquito larvae to determine how many of these biting insects are around, and also to check the effectiveness of our pesticides, said Capt. Ira Heimler, executive officer for 12th Medical Det. We apply larvicides to mosquito larva sites, such as ponds and edges of lakes, to help keep the mosquito numbers down, therefore reducing the threat of disease.
By applying pesticides on areas where sand flies and mosquitoes like to rest during the day, like building walls, around sand bags and trees, we can keep the numbers down where troops are, added Staff Sgt. Charles Osborne, PM specialist, 12th Medical Det. Treating for these pests with chemical pesticides, encouraging troops to use DEET skin repellent and treat their uniforms with permethrin, and modifying the pests habitat helps protect our forces from biting mosquitoes and sand flies.
And keeping these pests in control is important to everyone and is important to the overall mission.
One of the most important things is making sure commanders know what the health risks are, Horosko said. In Desert Storm, we didn't do such a good job of monitoring the environmental threats facing our forces, but we're doing a much better job now. PM units have much better equipment, and the PM mission is getting more support from commanders than in the past. Our PM specialists, environmental science officers and entomologists are better trained and also have a significant reach-back capability through DoD labs in the U.S.
As a result, we are able to accomplish so much more now than we were able to just 15 years ago. We're constantly monitoring the water, soil, air, conducting DFAC inspections, controlling disease-causing insects and letting the commanders know what the threat is and what to do about it. We make sure water, food, where you live, and the air you breathe are good to go, and if it's not, we make recommendations of what they need to do about it.
These checks and balances can make a real difference in troops' well-being and the overall mission success. Not to mention, parents back home would be happy to know their loved ones are being looked after by guardians in disguise.
When I get calls about troops concerned about their water or breathing in some smoke and are coughing, I can put the right team on it. If there's a problem with something being dumped on the side of the road somewhere, I know whom to energize to get that problem fixed. It's good to be able to accomplish things and to make things happen and it feels really good to be able to make a difference in the day-to-day existence of our forces.
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2005 15:02 |
| Story ID: | 2073 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 8 |
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