There's a story in the Boston Globe today titled: "Spread of disease tied to US combat deployments." Think Progress picked up on it earlier today. The disease in question is visceral leishmaniasis, also known as VL, which is described as:
also known as kala-azar and black fever, is the most severe form of leishmaniasis, a disease caused by parasites of the Leishmania genus. It is the second-largest parasitic killer in the world (after malaria), responsible for an estimated half-million deaths worldwide each year. The parasite migrates to the visceral organs such as liver, spleen and bone marrow and if left untreated will almost always result in the death of the mammalian host. Symptoms include fever, weight loss, anaemia and substantial swelling of the liver and spleen. Of particular concern, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is the emerging problem of HIV/VL co-infection.
Between Afghanistan and Iraq, VL has infected almost 2,500 US troops. You would think that with such a high number, military doctors might be having conversations with their civilian counterparts. You would think.
In some US hospitals in Iraq, the disease has become so commonplace that troops call it the "Baghdad boil." But in the United States, the appearance of it among civilian contractors who went to Iraq or among tourists who were infected in other parts of the world has caused great fear because family doctors have had difficulty figuring out the cause.
Well, maybe the reason word hasn't spread is because this is a new and recent disease that...
Leishmaniasis has long hounded the US military in its past deployments to the Middle East.
During World War II, troops in the Persian Gulf region reported high incidences of the disease; during the deployment for the first Gulf War, in 1990-91, just 31 cases were reported -- which received large headlines in the United States because it was unusual. But military officials interpreted the numbers as an improvement, reflecting good preventive techniques as well as troops spending more time in urban areas.
Oh, OK. Well at least the word's getting out in the military, right?
When Army Colonel Peter J. Weina , director of the leishmania diagnostics laboratory at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., spent months traveling around Iraq in 2003, he found that some commanders had taken no precautions to guard against infection.
[snip]
"In some areas, every one had heard about bed nets and about leishmaniasis, but other military units were totally oblivious," Weina said.
Col. Weina goes on to say that, in the military's defense, soldiers have had so much to worry about a little bug bite probably doesn't ring any alarms. I agree; it's the job of people like Col. Weina to do that.
Ok, so there's this disease that the military/government has encountered before when dealing with the Middle East. It becomes a problem again, and this time a bigger one (I'd call 2,500 big). The civilian doctors were pretty much kept in the dark. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan and Iraq, the answer to the question "Do you know what VL is?" varies from unit to unit...as is the answer to the question, "Do you have the means to guard against it?"
But at least we have an idea of whether or not this can spread from person-to-person...right?
While scientists found little evidence suggesting that the disease can be transmitted through blood transfusions, the US Food and Drug Administration, not wanting to take a risk, advised in late 2003 that US citizens traveling to Iraq should not be allowed to donate blood for a year upon their return -- and Americans diagnosed with leishmaniasis should be banned from donating blood over their lifetime. Weina, the Army medical researcher, said there is less reason to believe that the disease could be transmitted through casual or sexual contact. While some cases suggest that leishmaniasis might have occurred between couples, Weina said, no scientific study has proven it. But the wife of a civilian contractor who returned from Iraq with leishmaniasis said she fears she may have already been exposed to the disease.
"If you consider it can be transmitted sexually, and my husband has it, and I could have it as well, I'm furious," said Marcie Hascall Clark of Satellite Beach, Fla., whose husband, Merlin, spent two months clearing minefields in Iraq. Clark said she was also concerned because symptoms of leishmaniasis sometimes do not show for months or even years in some cases. "I worry that a lot of soldiers are coming back and they don't even know they have it," she said.
If anyone knows anything about VL, please share.