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USS Kearsarge Distributes Anti-Malarial Medicine
Story Number: NNS080813-10
Release Date: 8/13/2008 3:50:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Maddelin Angebrand, Continuing Promise Public Affairs
USS KEARSARGE, At Sea (NNS) -- Medical staff aboard USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) set up shop in the hangar bay Aug. 9 to distribute anti-malarial medications to crew members and various embarked personnel participating in Continuing Promise (CP) 2008.
CP is a joint effort between the United States and partner militaries, non-governmental organizations and partner-nation support organizations to build meaningful, lasting partnerships that can be unified in the event of a regional situation requiring cooperative solutions.
Kearsarge will visit Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana to provide humanitarian assistance.
"Many of the countries we are going to have tropical diseases that we're not accustomed to in the United States," said Cmdr. Sugat Patel of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. "Malaria can cause a bit of a problem in our troops. Certainly, our primary mission is to take care of patients in these countries, but we can't take care of them if we don't take care of ourselves first."
Symptoms of malaria include high fevers, severe chills and nausea, headaches and extreme fatigue. Left untreated, it can advance rapidly to become life-threatening.
Ship's crew and embarked personnel along with medical providers were screened and educated about the signs and symptoms of malaria and what to do to prevent mosquito bites.
"It's very important to protect our members," said Religious Program Specialist 1st Class Sonia Battle. "If our members get infected, that lessens the opportunity for us to complete our mission. So it's important that we take our medicine so we can better help the countries that we're here to help."
The Kearsarge team will conduct civil-military operations including humanitarian and civic assistance in an effort to send a strong message of United States support and commitment toward Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Kearsarge is under the operational control of U.S. 4th Fleet.
U.S. 4th Fleet's mission is to direct United States naval forces operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South American region and interact with partner nation navies to shape maritime environment.
Kearsarge's mission exemplifies the United States maritime strategy which emphasizes deploying forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests.
The CP Caribbean phase is the second of two HCA deployments to the Southern Command area of focus for 2008. The first CP deployment was conducted by USS Boxer (LHD 4) in the Pacific.
For more news about Continuing Promise, visit U.S. Southern Command's Web site at www.southcom.mil.
For more news from USS Kearsarge, visit www.navy.mil/local/lhd3.
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