On this Veterans Day, U.S. troops in Afghanistan are fighting swine flu as well as the Taliban. They’re living and working in close quarters in Afghan communities that are highly susceptible to widespread H1N1 — susceptible because the local health-care system is extremely fragile and because no WHO vaccine donations have yet arrived. The first Afghan flu death was reported on October 28th, and as of two days ago, eleven citizens had died. The Afghan government has declared a state of emergency, closing schools and universities for three weeks.
How are US soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan being protected? The U.S. Department of Defense is now receiving its first vaccines and figuring out how to distribute the supply. The vaccine will be mandatory for military personnel, and deployed troops will be among the first to receive it.
Here’s a one-minute video (embeddable) reporting on the DoD’s vaccine distribution:
[DoD]
Back here in the US, boot camp for new Army recruits now includes a flu-prevention regimen involving Army-green bottles of hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes, and sleeve coughing:
“We use this over and over, everyday,” said Spec. Arielle Schiltz, 20, of Detroit, Mich., showing how the small vial of hand gel she was issued fits in a shoulder pocket. “You just rub it in. After the latrine, before eating, after eating. It could be 15 to 20 times a day.”
(You can see the bottles in this embeddable six-minute video created earlier this fall by the Army Training and Doctring Command. The video is aimed at military personnel and stresses prevention techniques.)
If you’re interested in reporting on H1N1 and military personnel from your city or region, you could start at the DoD Military Health System’s influenza page, where you can find, among other things, the transcript of yesterday’s H1N1 webhall (an online Q&A). The National Guard also has its own H1N1 page.