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Public Health's goal: keeping the war fighter healthy

  • Published
  • By Capt. Craig Carper
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
The 379th Expeditionary Medical Group Public Health Element has one primary goal ... to keep Airmen healthy.

"Our main role is the prevention and control of communicable diseases," said Capt. Felisha Stancil, the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group Public Health Element chief. "My team has been extremely busy as of late and doing an amazing job."

According to Col. James Clapsaddle, 379th EMDG commander, during the past 30 days, his physicians placed nearly 800 members on quarters during the outbreak, but perhaps another 1,000 to 1,500 were ill, but not so badly as to seek medical care. In all likelihood, upwards of 15 percent of the base was effected by illness during July.

"I am proud of my team; at the height of this outbreak my Public Health staff worked 18 hours a day inspecting facilities, analyzing data and looking for ways to thwart the spread," said Col. Clapsaddle. "Our doctors, nurses and techs worked around the clock taking care of the sick. For military medics, this was a 'battle.'"

Such outbreaks can have significant impact on a mission. During the outbreak, the accumulated lost work time totaled almost 5 years worth of duty hours in just four weeks.

One of the main ways to prevent the spread of diseases is to monitor hygiene and sanitation by continuously inspecting all food and public facilities on the installation.

"We inspect the whole base to find vulnerabilities that might permit an outbreak to attack the base the same way our Security Forces seek to safeguard us against enemy attackers," said Staff Sgt. Ricardo Lemos, 379th EMDG Public Health operations manager deployed from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. "Once we are attacked by a disease or foodborne illness, we react to fight back and defend our people against the illness."

Lemos inspects food and facilities for potential risks. These efforts identify vulnerabilities for intentional or unintentional contamination of our food supply and look at the health of our infrastructure as well.

Public Health continuously works with the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron and the 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. They work with the FSS squadron to educate the food handlers working at the dining facilities. They train managers and workers on the importance of proper food handling, personal hygiene/hand washing and inspect the dining facilities on a regular basis.

Their efforts with CE are centered on inspecting facilities to include the base gyms, cadillacs and community activity centers. Their hard work ensures cleanliness and maintenance issues that may impact the overall quality of health standards are repaired in a timely manner and all facilities are sanitary and operational.

"The July Norovirus outbreak could have been much worse," said Col. Clapsaddle. "A similar outbreak last November actually impacted flight operations however this outbreak was contained because of our Public Health's actions and the amazing efforts of the Expeditionary Mission Support Group. EMSG was fantastic in their support, their cleaning, training and inspections. EMSG Commander Col. Stephanie Wilson set her default switch to "yes" for every request we made from EMSG. Master Sgt. Turaeza Hose, Force Support Squadron Food Service superintendent impressed me with how quickly she and her people reacted. Often, the dining facilities are the weak link in stopping the spread of illness. Not so at the 379th. The DFACs ramped up their game quickly and helped our Public Health folks prevent a wider spread of the virus. The Medical Group could not have whipped this outbreak without the EMSG."

The efforts to ensure a healthy and disease-free work environment are taken seriously by the 379th public health team. However, it is each member's responsibility to engage and be proactive in their own preventative health techniques.

With the constant rotation and transient population coming from all over the world here to the 379th AEW, it is important to ensure we each employ simple preventative steps. Wash your hands several times each day and always before meals. When you cough, turn your head and cough into your arm sleeve, and always wipe down common areas. These simple actions will defend you and your fellow Airmen against illness greater than almost anything the Public Health and EMSG can do. These simple actions will protect you and your wingman from contracting and spreading future diseases. Ultimately, this will result with 100 percent of our efforts engaged in the real fight.