PBL2: Introduction

Recently report shows that there are outbreaks of viral, fungal and protozoa diseases among platoons of army soldiers in Indonesia. Soldiers reported sick after 2 weeks of jungle warfare training. It is of concern to the ministry that there are also sporadic reports of avian flu in the nearby villages. Ministry of environment are also concerned that significant health risks exists in certain areas of Indonesia related to poor public health sanitation efforts in food, water, and infections disease control.

Major threats:

Food or waterborne Disease: Food and waterborne disease are normally caused by fecal contamination (diarrhea, Hepatitis A/E, typhoid fever), which is seem to be the greatest infectious threat to the government.

Vector-Borne Disease: Risk of malaria is variable, occurring year round and country wide. P. palciparum predominates. Dengue Fever and Japanese Encephalitis and malaria are seem to transmit the faster near rural and periurban areas, especially where extensive mosquito-breeding sites and pig-rearing areas coexists.

Respiratory Disease: tuberculosis is highly endemic. Risk is year-round and countrywide. Incidence likely is increasing.

Some requirement and/or schemes are listed below to be followed strictly to ensure that future batches of soldiers stay healthy throughout the jungle warfare training:

Requirement before deployment:
Ensure that routine immunizations for deployable personnel are up to date.
obtain adequate personal protective supplies and complete a pre-deployment health assessment.

Requirements during deployment:
deploy appropriate preventive medicine personnel and equipment
Avoid local food, water. Never eat undercooked ground meat, poultry, raw eggs, and unpasteurized dairy products.
Perform environment hazards assessments as needed.
Avoid contact with animals and hazardous plants
avoid contact with lakes, rivers, streams, and other surface water

Requirement after deployment:
Seek medical care immediately if ill, especially with fever.
Receive preventive medicine debriefing after deployment

In the following blogs described some possible virus, protozoa, and fungal pathogens that might have cause the outbreak of disease. Avian flu is considered to.