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| Iraq |
| Pneumonia draws Army’s attention: Medical teams sent to Iraq after soldiers get sick |
| 2003-08-04 |
| Followup to a question asked here a couple days ago. This tells us pretty much what we already know. EFL. The Army is sending two special medical investigation teams to Iraq and Germany to look into pneumonia-related cases that killed two soldiers and sickened about 100 others who were deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Office of the Army Surgeon General made the announcement Thursday, the same day MSNBC reported that mysterious cases of pneumonia had been surfacing among U.S. troops in Iraq. That news report came following a July 16 account in a Missouri newspaper reporting the death of a 20-year-old Missouri National Guardsman. Family members of Spc. Josh Neusche told the Springfield News-Leader that the young soldier collapsed July 2 while in Baghdad. He was taken to an Army hospital in Germany where doctors diagnosed him with what they believed to be pneumonia. His lungs filled with fluid and his liver, kidneys and muscles began to fail rapidly, family members said. Neusche died July 12. In a statement released Friday morning, the Army surgeon general’s office said about 100 soldiers -- operating in and around Iraq -- developed pneumonia since March 1. About 14 of those cases were "serious enough to warrant medical evacuation for ventilator support," the surgeon general said. Of those cases, Neusche and another soldier died, three soldiers remain hospitalized while nine soldiers have recovered from their illnesses. The name of the other dead soldier was not available. The Army surgeon general’s office said the number of cases "does not exceed expectations" of pneumonia-related illnesses in the Army. About nine of 10,000 soldiers get pneumonia each year, the surgeon general’s office said, adding that, from 1998 to 2002, pneumonia or pneumonia-related illnesses claimed the lives of 17 soldiers. Sure, but the composition and circumstances of those deaths are likely very different from what we’re seeing now. One of the surgeon general’s newly activated Epidemiological Consultation, or EPICON, teams will assist medical staff in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, looking into the cause of the illness. (Most of the pneumonia cases have been evacuated to Landstuhl.) The other EPICON team will supplement investigations in Iraq. The Landstuhl-based EPICON team will review patient records and laboratory results. The Iraq-based EPICON team will conduct soil, water and air samples. Officials with the 3rd Infantry Division said Friday they were not aware of any of the division’s soldiers suffering from pneumonia. The division’s 1st and 2nd brigades remain in Iraq. The division’s 3,700-soldier 3rd Brigade returned home to Fort Benning last month, but none of them have reported suffering pneumonia-related symptoms, said division spokeswoman Laurie Kemp. Capt. Paul Jacobson, the division’s officer-in-charge of the medical post-deployment of returning soldiers, said the Army has intensified post-deployment health monitoring of its troops since the first Gulf War. "After Desert Shield/Desert Storm we didn’t have the greatest track record," Jacobson said. "So this time we’re trying to be extremely proactive with the medical needs of our service members." Returning soldiers are required to complete forms addressing questions that deal with mental and physical health, Jacobson said. Army officials review the evaluations, determining if soldiers require further treatment. Blood samples also are taken from each soldier. Those samples become part of a national repository that can be cross-checked with inexplicable ailments suffered by other soldiers. "If we have soldiers who present signs and symptoms that aren’t specific to a disease that we are not aware of -- as we were unaware in Desert Storm," those samples will be "pulled from the shelves for that group of soldiers who were in that particular area and tested," Jacobson said. They learned from GW I. That’s good. The Operation Iraqi Freedom pneumonia cases were geographically dispersed, came from different units, and were spread over time, the surgeon general said. Of the serious cases, two cases of them occurred in March, three in April, two in May, three in June and four in July. The Army surgeon general said no common infectious agent has been found in the cases and that there is "no evidence that any of the pneumonia cases being investigated have been caused by exposure to chemical or biological weapons, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or environmental toxins." |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #19 PS *com hope you're enjoying all those boys in Thailand--PD-o-phile |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 11:17:30 PM |
| #18 Well thank you *com! Actually my ethnic background is Italian and Scottish--hate to disappoint ya! |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 9:47:00 PM |
| #17 LOL. You're a treasure, NMM, and a smooth liar. Kudos, you'd make a fair-to-middlin' Arab. |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-4 5:42:10 PM |
| #16 My apologies Anon1 -- meant that for *com (Can't keep up with all his |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 5:05:51 PM |
| #15 Oh crap, I have a wisdom tooth that's been giving me problems for two years... |
| Posted by: Raphael 2003-8-4 3:28:59 PM |
| #14 I had what I thought was a bad cold for a couple of weeks until my wife had enough of my coughing and made me go to the doctor. Sure enough, it was pneumonia. It's the strong young guys who deny that they are sick who tend to drop dead, just look at the NFL players who have died from heatstroke. You try to tough it out, not show any weakness and keep going until it's too late. You catch most any illness early enough and it can be cured, wait too long and even a toothache can get infected and kill you. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-8-4 2:06:10 PM |
| #13 Pneumonia is nothing to be sneezed at (no pun intended). I've been hospitalized with it twice (first time was during Christmas break my senior year of high school - what a downer!). Now, I have some permanent lung scarring that most doctors indicate is from the pneumonia. Makes life just a tad more difficult when I get above about 12,000 feet. There's a considerable part of this state that high or higher. Good news is, most pneumonia these days never gets that severe, primarily due to the expanded number of drugs that can be used against it. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-8-4 11:15:45 AM |
| #12 ·com -- Yes, that nuance got lost in the "prison bitch" comment. It's just my opinion, and I'm not about to declare myself Rantburg cop, but any valid, well-constructed arguments get lost when a poster includes banal crap like that. I didn't think much of "Not NMM" for his attack on NMM, and I in turn don't think much of NMM for his swipe at Anon1. But to each his own, and Fred can clean up if he chooses to. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Dar resumes his Monday blog and news junkie routine... |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-8-4 10:56:36 AM |
| #11 Dar - Okay - I hear you. And differ. I recall Not NMM said that NMM was intellectually dishonest - did that get lost in the spilled coffee over prison bitch? I thought it spot on - as I've elaborated a couple of times today responding to simplisme` NMM comments. Losing sight of the whole message seems to have been a common reaction to that post - sad, it was, indeed, an accurate sentiment from my POV. NMM is a troll. He comes to Rantburg to bait and play and practice his obvious desire to be a pluperfect prick, not to debate or inform. NMM deserves no defense from you. He comes here voluntarily to fuck with us. Okay, that's my 2 cents - and I'll stop bugging you (in particular). |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-4 10:39:36 AM |
| #10 ·com--No, I understand that it was directed at NMM. However, NMM's comment above was just as base and immature. If he disagrees with Anon1, he should say so and counter with his own opinion or advice. Attacking her as he did is childish and insulting, just like "Not NMM"'s attack on him was. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-8-4 9:52:32 AM |
| #9 Dar - I find it weirdly fascinating that you didn't get it about "Not NMM"... As was observed by someone else on that thread, the comment was aimed at NMM. Why else would it be from Not NMM? I agree there were too many "Nots" (knots?) in the stream. confusing the message, but hey, "not" everyone can be Shakespeare, I guess. Anyway - I agreed with the other Rantburger and am sure NMM was the guy he thought would make a fine prison bitch. Vile? Perhaps. Accurate sentiment regards NMM, absofuckinglutely, IMHO. ;-> |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-4 9:15:13 AM |
| #8 The big news here is the services prep for future claims of Gulf War syndrome. It'll be much harder to prove if they have a healthy medical profile of you at the end of your tour. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-8-4 9:02:53 AM |
| #7 Real nice, NMM. I see you've decided to take the low road along with "Not NMM", lashing and flailing out at anyone and making a general ass of yourself. Well, congratulations--you're doing a fine job of it. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-8-4 8:26:12 AM |
| #6 My, my. NMM, our resident court jester, strolls into the comment venue, takes a bona-fide dump on the virtual living room floor, and cruises on out the virtual door sans a backward glance. From such a posturing, preening, banal, self-absorbed, and self-appointed conscience of the masses you would certainly expect a response - too many, in fact - regards his asinine comment. Defending the indefensible is his faux forte as he putters about the 'Net, like his mercenary windbag namesake, tilting at farcical windmills created for convenience and pretentiously declaring his pablum Dom Perignon. But being NMM, inveterate IndyNazi Repeat-O-Matic and debonair Multilateralist Mass Apologist, apparently means never having to say your sorry. Fuck off & Toodles. |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-4 7:56:31 AM |
| #5 I've been hospitalized once with pneumonia. I've also had numerous sinus infections. In my case, NMM has some vague connection to reality in that the root cause did involve blood. That's where his connection with reality ends, though. In my case, the blood was a direct result of a center expressing his opinion of how I played nose tackle. It doesn't show, but my face has never worked quite right since then. It only took one bout of pneumonia to teach me that I needed to stay on top of things. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-8-4 7:52:53 AM |
| #4 NMM: that was really uncalled for. I at least apologised for my pointless ad hominem attack on Stevey. You owe me an apology for that bit of crap. Pneumonia is really a lot more common than people think. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2003-8-4 7:01:17 AM |
| #3 NMM: ??? |
| Posted by: Raphael 2003-8-4 3:15:21 AM |
| #2 Sounds like an opportunistic infection due to HIV ANON--play safe in the future |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 1:53:12 AM |
| #1 Lungs are the weakest point in the human body's defence system. Many young people get pneumonia, some don't even know if it's mild: change of temperature, change of virus/bugs in the environment (new country: new bugs) means that a cold/flu is much more likely. A cold/flu that settles in the chest will devolve into pneumonia if not treated properly with rest, mucous-drying agents (eg: sudafed, pseudo-ephedrine), anti-inflam steroids (eg: drixine for the nasal passages, pulmicourt for the lungs) and antibiotics (for secondary mucous-residing infection). I've been in hospital with it twice in the past and I'm only 29. Respect your respiratory system. If you have a cold with lots of mucous, make sure you take drixine and sudafed at night so mucous doesn't block your nose/run down the back of your throat into your lungs. Mouth-breathing at night makes you more prone, also. Need to open those nasal passages and clear those sinuses. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2003-8-4 1:30:25 AM |