U.S. Marines conduct a vehicle sweep to ensure there are no hidden improvised explosive devices during a security patrol through the Nawa district in the Helmand province, Afghanistan, Oct. 28, 2009. U.S Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg From The Washington Times:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan | U.S. military officials sent a medical team to a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan this week to take blood samples from members of an Army unit after a soldier in the unit died from an Ebola-like virus.
Dr. Jim Radike, an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Role 3 Trauma Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, told The Washington Times that Sgt. Robert David Gordon, 22, from River Falls, Ala., died Sept. 16 from what turned out to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he was bitten by a tick. The virus is transmitted by infected blood and can be carried by ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read more ....
My Comment: In the past, disease was more of a killer than the enemy itself. Unfortunately for the soldier who died in Afghanistan from a tick bite, in today' military death by illness disease is a rarity.
No comments:
Post a Comment