Troops in Haiti faced with health problems - excerpted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov 2, 1994

Nutrition Health Review, Wntr, 1995

Haiti:

Among the rising incidence of health problems besetting United States troops in Haiti are diarrhea and various intestinal infections. Malaria and other insect-borne disorders are rising among the young Americans. Observers report that parasites lurking in water and soil, zoonoses, sexually transmitted diseases, and respiratory infections pose even greater dangers if the troops settle down too long in the island. Personal hygiene is beginning to break down, they say, while contact with venomous creatures, such as centipedes, scorpion and indigenous snakes, pose singular problems.

The temperatures in Haiti average 80[degrees] Fahrenheit.

United States Military physicians are especially concerned whether troops returning to the United States will be carrying malaria. When the military returned from Somalia, a substantial number of troops were infected with malaria, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, and other health problems.

A booklet issued by the Preventive Medicine Division, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, warns the troops to avoid drinking grain alcohol, which is often tainted with wood alcohol and can cause kidney failure, blindness, or other problems.

None of the troops serving in Haiti will be allowed to donate blood for a year following return to the United States in order to ensure that they are disease free.

Before deployment, the troops were immunized for most diseases known to the area. Cholera immunization was not included, military spokesmen said, because "the licensed vaccine is not very effective and has some bothersome side effects.

(Reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 11/2/94.)