Courtesy story, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Public Affairs
A Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU), from Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit TWO (NEPMU-2), deployed in late August in support of Joint Task Force (JTF) Haiti, delivering humanitarian aid in Haiti following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on August 14th.
The FDPMU is a Navy expeditionary platform designed to provide technical expertise and advanced testing capabilities in the field, ensuring force health protection of service members. It’s also a rapid and flexible team, capable of supporting the high mobility missions of the Navy and the Marine Corps as well as the established long term missions of the Air Force and Army.
The FDPMU that deployed on this mission consisted of a Preventive Medicine Physician (PMO), an Entomologist, an Environmental Health Officer, and three enlisted Preventive Medicine Technicians (PMT’s). The team was staged at Guantanamo Bay providing public health support to the service members supporting the mission, while also delivering public health expertise to individuals directly impacted by the earthquake.
“In times of environmental crisis, early preventive medicine strategies plays a key role in health protection. In disease vector mitigation, timing is extremely important,” says Lt. Eleanor Moen, the JTF’s Entomologist assigned to the FDPMU. “Exposure to disease risk is much higher during fast paced missions and therefore it is important to keep pest management in mind when responding to a disaster,” added Moen, regarding the importance of preventive medicine in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) missions.
Lt. Moen played a critical role in identifying and controlling disease transmitting pests, like mosquitos, that were a threat to the HA/DR mission in Haiti. She and the PMT’s applied pesticides multiple times, in key areas of Guantanamo Bay and Haiti to control mosquitos known to carry malaria, dengue and other diseases, protecting over 400 service members supporting JTF-Haiti. Pest control efforts also included filth fly control and rodent/stray animal surveillance.
Monitoring disease threats and providing preventive medicine information to the force, to include COVID-19 mitigation and water quality monitoring, were other areas of focus for the FDPMU. The team also analyzed a variety of communicable disease threats to the force such as Cholera as well as recommended COVID-19 mitigation measures to JTF-Haiti leadership. Additionally, water quality and sanitation were concerns for public health and the morale of deployed forces. The EHO and the PMT’s validated municipal water sources for hand washing
and showering purposes, while treating 3,200 gallons of water multiple times a day ensuring water use safety.
The team also provided augmented public health expertise for the appropriate implementation of hygiene measures in the operational environment faced by U.S. personnel, including other U.S. Armed Forces, following this natural disaster.
“Working in a joint environment alongside all DoD branches and the Coast Guard was a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience in both the medical environment and how that interacts with the operational logistics of an HA/DR mission,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Kaitlyn Boyle, who was one of the three PMT’s on the task force, “I am very grateful to have made an impact.”
For more news from Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit TWO, visit https://www.med.navy.mil/Navy-Marine-Corps-Public-Health-Center/Field-Activities/Navy-Environmental-Preventive-Medicine-Unit-2/ or follow NEPMU-2 on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nepmu2.
The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) develops and shapes public health for the U.S. Navy and Marines Corps through health surveillance, epidemiology and analysis, disease and injury prevention, and public health consultation. Learn more by going to https://www.med.navy.mil/Navy-Marine-Corps-Public-Health-Center/. Follow NMCPHC on social media at https://www.facebook.com/NavyAndMarineCorpsPublicHealthCenter http://twitter.com/nmcphc and https://www.instagram.com/nmcphc/
| Date Taken: | 10.20.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2021 09:21 |
| Story ID: | 407601 |
| Location: | HT |
| Web Views: | 384 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, FDPMU Answers the Call in Haiti, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT