www.csua.org/u/jv2 -> news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20071030/wl_mcclatchy/20071030bcusiraqcombatstressevacuations_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop
WnmfDxJJQBBXYh4/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1193818554/A=4919452/R=0/* "There's nothing about being deployed or being in an austere environment that protects you from the normal maladies that people encounter in the United States ," said Lt. Ron Ross , a preventive medicine officer with the US Army's 62nd Medical Brigade in Iraq . More than 77 percent of those were for illnesses or non-combat injuries, according to data from the Department of Defense , Deployment Health Support Directorate. Most eventually return, said Ross, but the illnesses and accidents still cut into troop strength. Traditionally, such problems-- which the military lumps together as Disease and Non-Battlefield Injuries (DNBI)-- take more troops from the battlefield than combat injuries do, though modern medical care and public health techniques have cut the rate suffered by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 10 percent of what it was in World War II and Korea. An example of that success is the US fight against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by sandflies that causes festering wounds and can attack the organs. When the British army came to Iraq in the 1930s, leishmaniasis incapacitated up to 30 percent of the troops, said Lt. Ray Dunton , a trained entomologist who's in Iraq serving as chief of preventive medicine for the 62nd Medical Brigade. Preventive medicine teams went into action, spraying insecticide and urging troops to use insect repellant. Infestations dropped from an average of 140 a month to nearly zero. Only 10 people have been diagnosed with leishmaniasis this year. Still, the proportion of troops hospitalized for illness and non-combat injuries compared with combat injuries hasn't changed much since the wars in Korea and Vietnam . In part, that's because of a more aggressive philosophy about treatment, Ross said. "Our evacuation statistics and our medical care statistics reflect that we have ratcheted up the standard of care," he said, Evacuations also are spurred by the military's rule that anyone who won't recuperate within seven days of being hospitalized must be flown out of the country. That keeps beds open in case of a major casualty incident. No illness or injury dominates the list of non-combat evacuations, Ross said. Injuries from vehicle accidents are a big cause of evacuations, as are hypertension-related illness, respiratory problems, kidney stones and back and joint problems. For many, though, the notion of leaving their unit and buddies over a problem unrelated to combat is frustrating. That's one of the big reasons we get so many people back," he said.
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