MEDICAL OPERATIONS DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM 9 NOV 91

File: 123096_sep96_decls2_0041.txt
Page: 0041
Total Pages: 57

Subject: MEDICAL OPERATIONS DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM 9 NOV 91       

Unit: VAR. BUMED  

Parent Organization: BUMED       

Box  ID: BX303801

Folder Title: VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6                                                                

Document Number:          2

Folder Seq  #:         10








                 manager, MEDSOM, NMLC, and NSC Norfolk. A review of the possible missions of
                 these medical platforms, however, may support the development of AMAIs specifi-
                 cauy designed to meet the requirements for ongoing routine care for deployed troops.

                 Preventive Medicine

                      In every war for which statistics are available, military forces lost more personnel
                 to disease than to direct combat. During the ViLetnam war between 1965 and 1970,
                 62 percent of U.S. military casualties resulted from disease. Clearly, preventive
                 measures can contribute significantly to the preservation of the combat forces.
                 Desert Shield took place in a desert environment that posed several health threats
                 with the potential for degrading forces or rencbing epidemic status, including heat
                 injury, diarrhea, dermatological cases, respirato       z-y ailments, ophthal3nological
                 problems, fevers, and psychological disturbances.

                      In August, the Navy deployed a preventive'medicine team to the theater. The
                 team initiated a disease surveillance system to identif3r infectious diseases and to
                 monitor water, sewage, and food supply systems for-health threats. The Navy also
                 established a forward laboratory with Marine Corps forces to identify unusual
                 theater-specific infectious disease and biological warfare threat agents. Staffing for
                 the laboratory came from the Navy Medical Research Institute (NMRI) and included
                 experts in infectious disease from NMRI unit 3 in Cairo, Egypt, who were already
                 familiar with regional health threats.

                      The farw2rd laboratory provided early detection of epidemic diarrheal agents,
cial antibiotics
                 (ciprofloxacin) that were effective against the resistant          of bacteria in theater.
                 (>ver time, DNBI rates fell below the rates observed in Korea, Vietnam, and recent
                 deployments. Figure I compares observed DNTBI rates within the surveillance of the
                 preventive medicine team with historical and predicted rates. According to historical
                 data from the Naval Health Research Center, Navy and Marine Corps personnel
                 experienced DNBI rates ranging from 600 to 2,200 sick call visits per 10,000 troops
                 per week during Korea, Vietnam, and recent deployments. The DNBI rate varies
                 with the level of contact that military personnel have with the indigenous population.
                 Epidemiologists at the Naval Medical Re           and Development Command predicted
                 a DNBI rate of 1,100 per 10,000 troops per week, given the relatively restricted
                 1L-estyle of deployed troops. As shown in the figure, the DNBI rate fell over time.







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Document 57 f:/Week-37/BX303801/VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6/medical operations during operation desert storm:1217961126393
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-37
Box ID = BX303801
Unit = VAR. BUMED
Parent Organization = BUMED
Folder Title = VARIOUS BUMED DOCUMENTS FOLDER 6
Folder Seq # = 10
Subject = MEDICAL OPERATIONS DURING OPERATION DESERT STORM
Document Seq # = 2
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 17-DEC-1996