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 Panama City, Panama, 29 August 2007. The ship will be in Panama City for 1 day to take on supplies before heading back through the Panama Canal to Haiti. Current USPHS detachment (Team 3): 6 physicians, 2 dentists, 4 dental hygienists, 1 nurse, 2 environmental health officers (including OIC), 1 engineer, 1 veterinarian, 1 pharmacist.
- While the COMFORT was in Colombia, CAPT Rapp, USPHS ENG and LT Mangum, USPHS EHO and LT Sproul, Navy EHO went to the Pacific University at Hotel Estacion in Buenaventura, and presented Water Supply Protection, Environmental Toxins and Managing Risk in Food Production to an audience of 120 university students. The training was well received. CAPT Rapp accompanied the COMFORT’s Seabees to the isolated island community of La Sierpe where he made recommendations to local leaders to increase water pressure, improve sewage treatment/disposal efficiency, and distribute electricity from a remote power station.
- The USPHS dental team provided five full days of services at 2 sites in Colombia; Buenaventura and Bahia Malaga. Dental needs in those communities were restorative, preventive, as well as many extractions. Before the COMFORT departed Colombia, the ship’s dental department was congratulated for the outstanding performance in the last two countries (Ecuador and Colombia).
- The COMFORT has now completed two-thirds of the 4 month deployment. So far the COMFORT’s dental teams have performed over 3,000 extractions, placed more than 3,000 restorations and 5,000 sealants, and done more than 13,000 fluoride varnish applications.
USS PELELIU USPHS OIC: CAPT Kathleen Downs
- PELELIU is transiting from the Solomon Islands to Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Current USPHS detachment (Team 3): 2 physicians, 1 physician assistant, 3 environmental health officers, 2 environmental engineers, 1 pharmacist (OIC).
- While in the Solomon Islands, the PELELIU’s Forward Deployed Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU) Team (made up of USPHS and Navy personnel) worked in Sasamungga. They received support to develop information written in Pidgin to give to parents of children treated for acute diarrhea; met with medical clinic waste handlers, reviewed medical waste handling practices, and inspected incinerator; provided technical assistance and WHO training materials for healthcare waste handling and consulted with SeaBees about possible repairs to the hospital waste incinerator and potable water line. The Secretary of the Navy visited Sasamungga and met USPHS officers who went ashore that day.
- While in the Solomon Islands LT Branch treated numerous patients in the clinic and CAPT Wilcox performed numerous surgeries aboard ship including repair of inguinal hernias in children, colonoscopies and esophogogastroduodenoscopies.
- As the PELELIU transited to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the ships crew underwent the Crossing of the Equator ceremony. All the USPSH team members participated in the event and became trusted Shellbacks!