AN NUMANIYAH MILITARY TRAINING BASE, Iraq, Sept. 8, 2004 — Just southwest of here lays the village of Al Bulha, one of many surrrounding the base in Iraq's Wasit Province. A U.S. Navy medical corpsman recently helped save villagers' eyesight by identifying a contagious eye disease -- Trachoma.

"The worst case scenario for the disease is blindness in one year," said Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Sayers, a Fleet Marine Force corpsman with the Multinational Security Transition Command - Iraq, Health Affairs Section, speaking on the brutal disease "Trachoma."

Trachoma is a communicable disease afflicting a victim's eyes and is transmitted through eye-to-eye contact, spread commonly by sharing of contaminated articles such as towels, or by flies that carry the disease from person to person.

The disease, one of the earliest recorded eye diseases dating back to the 27th Century B.C., is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and afflicts more than 400 million people. Primarily found in underdeveloped countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the prognosis is excellent if treated early with simple antibiotics. Untreated cases, however, result in corneal scarring and sure blindness.

"It's correctible in the 'blue haze' stage," Sayers said, "but once it turns to scar tissue, you're blind," he added, also relating that the 'blue haze' attacks the cornea by surrounding it with the disease before working its way in.

So it was with great fortune that Coalition contractors identified a potential problem sometime in May and turned the issue over to Sayers.

Sayers, a corpsman formerly involved in many civil action program projects in the area along with the 10 other base advisory team members, unsure of the ultimate diagnosis, took digital photos of the villagers' eyes and forwarded them to doctors in the United States. The doctors confirmed the early suspicions of the contractors - one whom had formerly been through a class on Trachoma, nearly 40 years ago - and armed with the professional confirmations, Sayers went into action.

"We were able to get a hold of 47,000 antibiotic tablets for the village," Sayers said. The effort was coordinated with the Iraqi armed forces' surgeon general's office. The Coalition released $7,000 and the Iraqi's purchased the antibiotics locally and then delivered them to Sayers.

"But the big thing was we had to manage the distribution," Sayers said. "Imagine the last time you were given a prescription for only seven to 10 days and actually followed through on the directions. And now we're looking at 28 days.

"If only one patient does not comply," Sayers said, "re-infection will occur. So we made up explicit instructions and had them translated into Arabic and gathered the leaders around and said, 'Look, when the 'meds' get here, I have to have your help. So you're going to have to listen and take care of this,'" he said.

The instructions included every age, demographic, male, female, old, young, pregnancies, everything, to make it happen. And it did.

Residents, over the age of eight, received two doses of Doxycycline a day for 28 days with the balance of the infected

villages of Al Bulha given a similar amount relative to age and condition. And from the outlook some 60-plus days after the first treatment with the drug on June 29, the Trachoma attack has been thwarted.

Indeed, though, the medical civil action programs, otherwise known as "MEDCAPS," in the Wasit Province areas surrounding the new base that will be the home to three Iraqi Intervention Force battalions, an army Brigade Headquarters, and an Iraqi Police Service Regiment, does not stop there.

They have also included the treatment of Iraqis for various illnesses, including Leishmaniasis cases, chronic eye and sinus problems, stomach problems, intestinal parasites, and a host of other maladies. To that end, Sayers estimates he and the local team have handed out roughly 13,000 tablets of Motrin and Sudafed, a couple hundred bottles of Afrin, Visine, 10 cases of Mylanta, while administering various shots and 60,000 antibiotic tablets.

"And as many multi-vitamins as we can get our hands on," Sayers said. "We've even spent our own money at the post exchange," he added before relating a final story of a mammoth effort from family and friends in Birmingham, Ala., who filled 31 boxes with medical supplies from the local St. Vincent's Hospital where his mother works before convincing United Parcel Service to ship the supplies to Iraq for free. The local manager for the shipping company even kicked in his own funds to get the balance of the shipment, not covered by the company, onto the aircraft and into the country.

"These kinds of efforts mean a lot to the people here," said Sayid Ali, an influential leader from the neighboring town of An Numaniyah familiar with the base advisory team's efforts to reach out to the local citizens, "because it shows that Americans are not here to destroy but to help the Iraqi people.

"Especially here, because we are a peaceful town," Ali said.

Sayers is glad to help, but modest about his efforts.

"Treating kids is where you make your money," Sayers said. "It's the key to this thing.

"And I was told a long time ago, if you're looking for medals or awards, don't get into this business," he said. "Because the best thing you can ever have is for a patient to tell you 'Thank you.'"