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Public health team keeps 'The Rock' safe

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Lindsey Maurice
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  While public health is at the forefront of any population, this holds especially true in a deployed environment.

Food safety and facility sanitation, communicable diseases, occupational health and force readiness are just some of the aspects Master Sgt. Linda Griffin-Haddox and Staff Sgt. Morris Belmon, 386th Expeditionary Medical Group Public Health team, must deal with on a daily basis here at "The Rock", an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.

"At home station, we usually have about 20 people in a shop, so you focus on one particular aspect of public health at a time," said Sergeant Griffin-Haddox, deployed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, "but here there are only two of us, so we must cover all aspects of our job."

By all aspects of the job, Sergeant Griffin-Haddox means communicable disease, deployment processing, entomology, food-borne illness investigations, food safety and facility sanitation, immunizations tracking, occupational health, sexually-transmitted diseases counseling and squadron cookout clearances. With all these areas to cover, this means the team faces long, often unpredictable hours.

"There is no such thing as a typical day for us," said Sergeant Belmon, deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla. "We get to work early and never know what time we're going to get off work. You have to have patience and remain flexible in this job."

One aspect of public health that makes it so unpredictable is the immunizations tracking and force readiness programs, said Sergeant Griffin-Haddox, a Walnut Grove, Miss., native.

"We have to meet each group of inbound and outbound personnel to ensure they meet all immunizations requirements, even those just transiting through the base, as well as make sure they're being screened for H1N1 [flu symptoms]," she said. "In addition, we generate medical reports for each unit to track which ones are sending their members downrange medically ready and which ones may be lagging."

Another important aspect of public health is its epidemiology mission, in which they conduct daily disease surveillance that tracks all patients showing signs of the common cold or upper respiratory infections.

"We have to make sure we track this closely to look for a possible spike from the normal," said Sergeant Griffin-Haddox, "With such a small population here in a deployed environment, an outbreak could seriously hinder, if not halt, the mission and we can't have that; therefore, we need to track these things and catch them early."

One of the more high visibility aspects of the public health team's mission at "The Rock" is its food safety and the facility sanitation mission. The team visits the dining facility and other food establishments on base frequently to ensure they are meeting Air Force standards.

"We make sure the food is coming from an approved source, that it's received properly at the right temperature and we review the food preparation process to include the way workers store, prepare and serve food," said Sergeant Griffin-Haddox. "Basically, we must thoroughly inspect the entire process from start to finish."

The team also travels to some of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing's geographically separated units once a month to visit with their threat working groups and inspect their facilities. The team inspects various facilities located on "The Rock" twice a month such as the fitness center, barber/beauty shops and pool to ensure they are sanitary and meet Air Force standards as well.

Often times, the public health team must also collaborate with other units or agencies on base within various aspects of its mission. Such is the case with the 386th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron pest management flight in dealing with the entomology portion of their job.

"While pest management deals with the mosquito control and treatment side of things, we deal with the recognition phase," said Sergeant Griffin-Haddox. "Our mission is to validate what vectors we may have large mosquito populations in and see what types of diseases, if any, mosquitoes in those vectors may be carrying. This way, we can ensure that if there is a vaccination against those diseases that it's administered to the base populace or other control measures are taken to prevent an outbreak."

Sergeant Belmon, a Fort Worth, Texas, native, said that while the days can run long and they are often stretched thin within the office, it is a job well worth it.

"It can be hard at times, but I enjoy what I do," he said. "It's nice not being stuck behind my desk all day. I like getting out and interacting with people and putting to practice what I've learned in all aspects of my job. I always try and give 100 percent at anything I do and here it is no different."