Troops In Iraq To Be Screened

Tuesday, June 3, 2003
The Associated Press

Capt. Paul Jacobson, an Army physician's assistant overseeing the screenings, said he will have a staff of 30 ready by mid-June. "We know this onslaught's coming. We're prepared for a flood, and hopefully we can handle it."

FORT STEWART, Ga. -- AP
Hoping to avoid the delays and denials sick soldiers faced after the first Gulf War, the Pentagon has ordered health screenings for every soldier, sailor, Marine and airman sent into the Iraq war.

Within 30 days of their homecoming, every one will fill out a health questionnaire, review it with a health provider and give a blood sample -- a sweeping effort to defend against potential health problems among the estimated 250,000 troops sent to the Persian Gulf region during the war.

"We're prepared this time, whereas in the first Gulf War we really weren't," said Col. Paula K. Underwood, an Army doctor. "We're doing it across the board and we're not waiting for them to come to us. When I stop and think about it, this is unprecedented, really, in military medicine."

Underwood has strong memories of the wave of illnesses after the first Iraq war. She had just returned to her post in Germany from the 1991 war when she saw a patient whose condition baffled other doctors.

The patient was a soldier, also just back from the war, who complained of memory loss. He could no longer find his way from home to work. He had trouble remembering how to make his morning coffee.

He was the first of 72 patients with unexplained illnesses Underwood would see before leaving Germany in 1993. Some complained of aches and pains. Others said they got sick more often than normal.
(More: Military.com)
http://www.military.com/NewsContent?file=FL_screen_060303&ESRC=army.nl
2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan