Preventative medicine team works out the bugs for U.S., Afghan troops in Heart

Photo By Staff Sgt. Marie Schult | A preventative medicine team places five drops of acid into their first water sample which will be sent to a lab in the U.S. for testing. The Combined Joint Special Operation Task Force-Afghanistan preventative medicine team recently surveyed firebase Thomas near Shindand District, Herat province, to ensure the service members there are protected from environmental hazards.  

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

04.14.2009

Courtesy Story

U.S. Forces Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — "Jonesy, check this out," said the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan preventative medicine captain to her specialist. "Remember, I [said] you would know when they tested positive," she said as she pulled a small jar of yellow liquid out of an incubator. The yellow liquid is water and the fact that it's yellow indicates the presence of bacteria.

The fourth bottle was yellow to the point of looking orange. After further evaluation it was determined that this bottle had e-coli bacteria in it which can cause typhoid, hepatitis A and cholera to name a few. This water came from a dining facility in an Afghan national army commando compound, and the source of the contamination was found to be a broken sewer pipe which has since been fixed.

Over a two-week period the preventative medicine team has been gathering bugs, testing water, taking air samples, inspecting living quarters and dining facilities. They also evaluated the overall situation at Firebase Thomas in Herat province, in order to ensure the troops living on the base are as safe as they can be living in an austere situation.

"Since this was addressed as a medical concern, we got all involved parties to make a difference," said the physician's assistant and senior medical advisor on the firebase, regarding the contaminated water. The team treated the water in the commando compound with chlorine to kill the bacteria in their water supply.

"Mostly we concern ourselves with environmental health threats that might expose [troops] to medical threats," explained the captain. Some of these threats are sand flies and mosquitoes which can carry leishmaniasis, a flesh eating disease that is very painful, difficult to treat and can lead to death.

"I thought our water was somewhat sanitized, but I didn't know it needed to be chlorinated," said a Special Forces team leader. He has put plans in place to chlorinate the water coming into the team house where his men live; however, most of the men use bottled water to drink, brush their teeth and make coffee.

In addition to testing the water, the team assessed the camp for other possible environmental medical threats such as bugs, arthropods, mosquitoes and sand flies, which were collected, sorted and stored daily.

"The other bugs are not medically important to us," said the preventive medicine team captain, because they do not pose a health threat. However, the sand flies and mosquitoes carry malaria and leishmaniasis. Each evening the team sets out bug traps. In the morning the traps are collected and the bugs are frozen. In the afternoon the bugs are sorted by gender and type. The bugs will be sent to a laboratory in Europe for analysis.

The analysis itself doesn't much matter to the SF team leader here. "I'm assuming the bugs have leish," he said. "I'm still going to take the same precautions to protect my people, even if the test results come back negative for leish."

Identifying bugs with possible health risks is not enough according to the PMT captain. The team assessed areas where the pests breed, such as standing water and sand pits, and gave recommendations on how to deal with those areas.

In addition to bugs in the water and bugs in the air, the PMT also checked for bugs in the chow hall. "The dining facility is one of the best I have seen in country," said the PMT captain during her briefing to the team. "Your cooks are doing a great job of keeping things clean." Also the water from the dining facility was the only water on camp that tested negative for bacteria.

"Kurt [cook] is doing a great job. We haven't had any illnesses related to the food which is a compliment to his guys," said the physician's assistant.

This is not the first time the PMT has assessed a base camp. "We've been to five camps, and we intend to get to as many as we can during this rotation," said the PMT captain. "Usually they are pretty thankful once they see the results and recommendations. Usually they want us to come back and do follow-ups."

Both the team leader and physician's assistant want the PMT to return to do a re-assessment of the base in the near future. For now the PMT is off to Farah to check on another firebase, and they will continue this process until either there is no environmental medical threat or they run out of time and bug traps.

• Date Taken: 04.14.2009
• Date Posted: 04.14.2009 15:36
• Story ID: 32391
• Location: KABUL, AF