BAGHDAD BOIL: parasites infect many U.S. troops

[GWisaCrackHead]

Biloxi Sun-Herald Posted on Tue, Dec. 16, 2003      
Reserve unit commander says many troops infected with parasitic disease
Associated Press
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/7505830.htm

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. - Some members of the Army Reserve's 296th Transportation Co. apparently are infected with a parasitic disease contracted in Iraq, the company commander says.

"Many of my soldiers, including myself, have it," Capt. Howard Taylor told The Daily Leader newspaper of Brookhaven. "The signs are just beginning to show now. I've got some soldiers with bites all over their bodies."

A spokesman at the 296th headquarters said Tuesday the unit had about 135 soldiers who served in Iraq.

Leishmaniasis, known as "Baghdad Boil" to U.S. soldiers, is a skin disease transmitted by bites from sand flies in Iraq. It can leave disfiguring lesions on the skin for months.


http://www.kit.nl/frameset.asp?TargetURL=/biomedical_research/html/leishmaniasis.asp

The disease is more common in rural than urban areas of Iraq, but is found on the outskirts of some cities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Vaccines and drugs for preventing infections are not currently available.

About 150 U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq were earlier diagnosed with leishmaniasis and more may have been infected with the disease, according to recent reports. The disease can take months to incubate.

While the disease is serious, it is not generally life-threatening. The sores eventually will heal on their own, officials said.

"They did say if we didn't get any help for it there will be some deformities," Taylor said.

Taylor said he was bitten several times, but the most serious infection seems to be around his ankle, where his skin is discolored.

"It's going to leave a scar, and it's spreading up to my knee now," he said.

Member of the 296th contracted the disease while in a base camp south of Baghdad, Taylor said.

"We were in an affected area," he said. "(Command) put (warnings) out in a briefing to protect yourself, but by that time we had all already been bit."

Further complicating the situation for the 296th, Taylor said, was that few civilian doctors are familiar with the disease, and the only hospital he knew to be treating it is Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Maj. Trey Cate, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, told the Associated Press last week that the division sent 20 soldiers to Walter Reed for treatment and testing.

"We have evacuated them ... (so they) can be treated by the experts and studied in ways that are impossible in the field," he said.

Taylor said he hopes he can begin sending soldiers to Walter Reed soon for treatment. He said there is talk and rumors that the 296th may be redeployed to Iraq in March for up to two years.

Information from: Daily Leader

You can't really blame Dubya for wanting to limit his Baghdad exposure to an indoor, two hour Thanksgiving dinner...