Health Diplomacy Weekly Update
In response to both Presidential and Secretarial initiatives, the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment in the Office of Public Health and Science’s Office of the Surgeon General, is currently deploying teams of commissioned officers on two separate Navy ships undertaking health diplomacy missions. The USNS COMFORT is on a 4 month mission to 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The USS PELELIU is on a 3 month mission to 6 Pacific Rim and Pacific Island countries.
USNS COMFORT USPHS Officer-in-Charge (OIC): CAPT Craig Shepherd
- COMFORT arrived in Bahia Malaga, Colombia 22 August 2007. Current USPHS detachment (Team 3): 6 physicians, 2 dentists, 4 dental hygienists, 2 nurses, 2 environmental health officers (including OIC), 1 engineer, 1 veterinarian, 1 pharmacist. A few officers and others are going ashore to set-up for the rest of the week. Missions in Colombia will be fully underway in the early morning of 23 August and will continue through 27 August.
- While in Ecuador, the USPHS Engineer, CAPT Phil Rapp visited the Rodriquez Zambrano Hospital (RZH). While there he consulted and provided advice/recommendations regarding the hospital boiler make-up line repair (COMREL) and hospital hydro-pneumatic System - water hammer phenomenon. He also located the municipal water supply feed to RZH, determined sequencing and status of system infrastructure, conducted (with LT Sproul, Navy EH Tech) assessments of refrigeration and food storage and arranged for use of RZH pipe & fittings.
- Veterinary Services went to Las Lagunas, Aguas Nuevas and to the San Juan sector near the Manta, Ecuador landfill. Each family had a combination of cattle, swine, dogs, and donkeys and or horses. The treatment encounters included: deworming, vaccinations (rabies for dogs, tetanus for donkeys and horses), wound cleaning, and treatment for ectoparasites. There were a total of 2,391 animal patient encounters. In addition, COMFORT veterinary team gave stuffed animals to several of the community children. The USPHS preventive medicine physician, CAPT Louisa Chapman accompanied the veterinary mission to an impoverished community and treated 442 residents aged 2 years or older for intestinal parasites/roundworms.
- LT Jason Mangum, USPHS, Environmental Health Officer and LT Hanley, USN presented five topics to a group of young doctors, nurses, and EMTs at the RZH. The team covered the importance of food safety, occupational risks at work, fundamentals of integrated pest management, disease prevention and disease treatment. The course generated some discussion among the HN physicians, PHS & Navy staff as it applied to their work environment.
USS PELELIU USPHS OIC: CAPT Kathleen Downs
- PELELIU arrived in the Solomon Islands on 19 August 2007. Current USPHS detachment (Team 3): 2 physicians, 1 physician assistant, 3 environmental health officers, 2 environmental engineers, 1 pharmacist (OIC). Missions are underway aboard ship and ashore.
- While in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the preventive medicine team made many noteworthy accomplishments including the development of an emergency disaster plan (developed by LCDRs Dieser and Hanley) which will be used as the template for all hospitals in PNG; the well point developed, and established under CDR Bosiljevac’s direction; the implementation of hospital-wide infection control procedures and solid (esp. medical) waste procedures under CDR Bates direction, and; the assessment and analysis of water throughout Madang (proper) and 3 out-lying internally displaced persons camps carried out by LCDRs Piontkowski and Treffiletti and LT Hassan.