Airmen combat sickness in community
by Tech. Sgt. Reginal Woodruff
447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
1/30/2004 - BAGHDAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Iraq (AFPN) -- Airmen of the 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron joined soldiers to provide medical care and humanitarian assistance to residents of a local community Jan. 23.
The visit to a small, impoverished town about 10 miles from here was part of the Medical Civic Action Program. The program sends doctors and medics out to provide free medical care to villagers on a regular basis.
“It’s basically a civilian program where, during wartime like this, doctors go out and render assistance to the civilian population,” said Master Sgt. Rod Holland, 447th ESFS first sergeant. “Tasking is sent down through the Army and they asked for our assistance.
“There was a concern because this village, in the past, had not been necessarily friendly. But they were very happy to see us,” he said.
Sergeant Holland and other airmen of his squadron provided humanitarian assistance and security, while the squadron’s physician assistant and independent medical technician examined and treated sick residents of the community.
“The types of diseases you see in these villages aren’t ones you’d see in the United States,” said 1st Lt. Robert Schrope, 447th ESFS physician assistant. “You see untreated ear infections, tuberculosis, hepatitis, polio … things you’re not going to see in people who have access to ‘First World’ medicine.”
Lieutenant Schrope said the residents of the community, and others he has visited in Iraq, suffer from conditions that are easily preventable by immunizations and clean living conditions.
“You’ve got to go back to the basics -- running water, first of all, clean water [and] sanitation,” Lieutenant Schrope said. “They’re basically living in Third World conditions. When you see livestock living in a house with people, and sanitation as just a drainage ditch on the side of the house, you’re going to have diseases.
“We take for granted toothpaste and toothbrushes to prevent tooth decay, eating fruits,” he continued. “Even the breads we eat are fortified with vitamins automatically, so we don’t get the underdevelopment that you get with these children.”
He also pointed to things like hand washing and changing baby’s diapers regularly as other simple, yet, important preventative methods.
Airmen and soldiers addressed some of those basic preventions by providing the Iraqis hygiene packets filled with items donated by servicemembers. The packets included toothpaste, soap, lip balm, baby wipes, diapers, formula and hand sanitizer.
Physician assistants saw as many patients as possible; however, they were limited by medicine and equipment they had.
“The Army gets only so many medications and then they get things that have been donated,” Lieutenant Schrope said. “So we basically stay until it runs out.”
Because of the severity of some of the conditions, often they can only provide relief and advise the sick villagers to visit a doctor in a larger village, Lieutenant Schrope said. Unfortunately, the military physicians are the only doctors the villagers have ever seen or are likely to see.
“It’s amazing to think that we’re bringing (modern) medicine to people who’ve never seen it before in their lives,” the lieutenant said. “It’s basic care, but compared to nothing … it’s life saving.”
Force-protection concerns prevent follow-up visits to villages, Sergeant Holland said.
“A second trip to a village would give terrorists a greater opportunity to target servicemembers and we’re trying to spread the wealth to other villages,” he said. |
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