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'Baghdad Boil' Afflicting U.S. Troops
YahooNews ^

Posted on 04/19/2004 2:21:46 AM PDT by Happy2BMe

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Staff Sgt. Eric DiVona didn't notice the small bumps on his face and left earlobe until he returned from serving nine months in Iraq (news - web sites). Nothing much, he thought, probably just a spider bite. But soon those bumps erupted into open sores, one growing to the size of a half dollar.

Photo
AP Photo

 

What DiVona thought was a spider bite was actually caused by a tiny sand fly with a fierce parasite stewing in its gut, an organism that causes stubborn and ugly sores that linger for months.

The left side of DiVona's face puffed up, a swelling that wouldn't go away. And he noticed he was not the only one in his unit with such symptoms.

"A lot of people started coming down with sores," he said, sitting at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with an IV taped to his right arm. "It was like, 'You ain't cool unless you got it.'"

Scientists and doctors refer to the disease caused by the parasite as cutaneous leishmaniasis. But soldiers serving in sand-fly rich Iraq call it, with little affection, the "Baghdad boil."

The sores are not painful or contagious, but left untreated they can last up to 18 months and leave permanent, burn-like scars. Since the flies bite exposed areas, many soldiers have sores on their necks, faces and arms.

Doctors at Walter Reed have seen 653 cases of leishmaniasis, and the hospital's infectious disease wards until recently overflowed with soldiers undergoing a 20-day treatment regimen.

"We see a few cases every year, but not the numbers we saw come out of Iraq," said Col. Dallas Hack, chief of preventive medicine at Walter Reed.

The military has made a big effort to treat leishmaniasis, even pulling soldiers out of the field who have confirmed cases and flying them back to Washington for medical care.

But Walter Reed doctors say it was almost inevitable that they would see a high number of cases this year.

Leishmaniasis occurs in hot and tropical countries where sand flies dwell, Hack said. Still, only about 20 soldiers got leishmaniasis during the first Gulf War (news - web sites), and a handful more contracted it in Afghanistan (news - web sites).

This time, though, American forces arrived in Iraq during the peak season for sand flies and were in the field much longer. Many slept outside at night, exposing themselves at the sand fly's favorite feeding time.

Iraqis have also done little to control the problem, such as using insecticide to kill off the flies, Hack said. Local residents have come to accept the disease, he said, exposing young children to sand flies in hopes of building immunity.

Doctors have told soldiers in Iraq what to look for and implored them to wear bug spray. Medical teams with front-line combat troops have tested sand flies for the parasite.

But with enemy bullets flying, the first concern of most soldiers was not slathering on bug spray every morning.

"You didn't think about leishmaniasis too much," said Maj. Eric Moore, who contracted the parasite on the Iran-Iraq border with the 4th Infantry Division.

The lesions will eventually go away on their own and would not affect a soldier's ability to serve. Even so, the military thought it was important that soldiers with bad cases be flown out of Iraq for treatment so they wouldn't be disfigured.

In Moore's unit of about 750 men, more than 200 came down with leishmaniasis during a 10-month tour that ended in March. He was relatively lucky — he has only one quarter-sized sore on his left arm. Others had lesions all over their bodies, he said.

Moore isn't too worried about scarring. He predicts it will delight his children, especially his 3-year-old, who has a fascination with Band-Aids.

"They will probably think it's cool," he said while getting his daily dose of a drug called Pentostam. "They'll probably say, 'Daddy has an ouchie.'"

"For most soldiers, it isn't a war stopper," said Lt. Col. Glenn Wortmann, an infectious disease physician at Walter Reed. "But most patients want treatment so the thing will go away."

Walter Reed is one of only two hospitals where patients are sent because the treatment can only be done in a clinical trial setting. With domestic cases a rarity, Pentostam is not licensed in the United States. However, the Army is developing a treatment that can be used in the field.

Many soldiers didn't realize they had the boils until weeks after exposure. DiVona remembers being bitten constantly by flies, but he and other members of his unit didn't see any sores until after they got home in November to Fort Campbell, Ky.


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: baghdad; baghdadboil; boil; iraq; turass
Between "Baghdad Boils," "Camel Spiders," and the mujahadeem, Iraq is not on many vacation destinations.

(It's not HELL - but you can see it from there.)

1 posted on 04/19/2004 2:21:47 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
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To: B4Ranch; Ragtime Cowgirl; TrueBeliever9; JackelopeBreeder; JohnHuang2; NRA2BFree; ...
Army Staff Sgt. Eric DiVona, from Fort Campbell, Ky. waits in an infectious diseases treatment room while receiving an IV infusion of Pentosta, Tuesday, April 13, 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. to treat the leishmaniasis he caught while on active duty in Iraq.  (AP Photo/Leslie E. Kossoff)
Sun Apr 18, 5:38 PM ET
AP

Army Staff Sgt. Eric DiVona, from Fort Campbell, Ky. waits in an infectious diseases treatment room while receiving an IV infusion of Pentosta, Tuesday, April 13, 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. to treat the leishmaniasis he caught while on active duty in Iraq

2 posted on 04/19/2004 2:24:35 AM PDT by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
I read a story about a guy who had one of these bites 30 years ago...he wound up getting basal cell carcinoma in the exact spot 30 years later.
3 posted on 04/19/2004 2:31:32 AM PDT by Dasaji (Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...)
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To: Happy2BMe
If anyone is interested, there are links that I provided on other threads that document the strange poisoning attempts by Ramsey Yousef, an Iraqi agent in custody in a Colorado prison. Yousef managed to use whatever training he was given as an Iraqi agent to poison other prisoners who he thought were cooperating with the FBI. Those prisoners, or at least one of them, exhibited some of these same symptoms.
I'll look for the info to post it here.
4 posted on 04/19/2004 2:47:19 AM PDT by WhiteyAppleseed (One OKC bomber's fortune cookie said: You will hurt your foot. Sadam's statues have feet of bronze.)
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To: Happy2BMe
The information is in an Adobe file that I can't seem to cut and paste, or transfer to a Word program and then cut and paste. The info is contained in FBI 302s, dated: 12/16/96, 12/26/96 & 1/17/97

The last includes this:" Yousef has decided to poison “FLESIANO”. YOSEF has decided to make some poisons from the food which he receives and pass the food to the two inmates. YOUSEF stated that it will take approximately ten days to two weeks for the poison to kill the inmates."

5 posted on 04/19/2004 3:09:36 AM PDT by WhiteyAppleseed (One OKC bomber's fortune cookie said: You will hurt your foot. Sadam's statues have feet of bronze.)
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To: Dasaji
Not good - but we've advanced light years in medical treatment since then.

Hopefully, there can be a topical treatment to keep these buggers off while in Raqi land.

6 posted on 04/19/2004 3:18:38 AM PDT by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
While in Afgstan in Jan of 03 as part of humani effort, these buggers were all over the faces of the little kids in the country. Remember one baby girl and an older boy named Hamid. Think of that size sore on the cheek of a 1 year old girl. It was aweful. Hamid was 3 large scars on his face from when he encountered the fleas earlier in life. All I c could think about was this beautiful little girl was going to be scarred for life.
7 posted on 04/19/2004 6:28:56 AM PDT by WestPoint90
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To: Happy2BMe
Leishmaniasis is prevalent on the Atlantic side of the Republic of Panama. It is caused by protozoans carried by sand flies. As one can see in the photo, the ulcer is large; and when it finally heals, it leaves an ugly scar which looks like a scar from a burn.

The Indians who live in that area have had a remedy for Leishmaniasis forever. Unfortunately, and as curious as I am, I don’t know what exactly is used other than different types of indigenous plants used with great success. The plants are crushed and added topically. However, there is always scarring whether with “modern” medicine or local medicine.

Hillary could sport one of these things in the middle of her face and it would be considered a beauty mark.

8 posted on 04/19/2004 6:44:17 AM PDT by GatĂșn(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer) (``)
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To: Happy2BMe
While in Afgstan in Jan of 03 as part of humani effort, these buggers were all over the faces of the little kids in the country. Remember one baby girl and an older boy named Hamid. Think of that size sore on the cheek of a 1 year old girl. It was aweful. Hamid was 3 large scars on his face from when he encountered the fleas earlier in life. All I c could think about was this beautiful little girl was going to be scarred for life.
9 posted on 04/19/2004 6:46:22 AM PDT by WestPoint90
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To: WhiteyAppleseed
"FLESIANO"??? Idiot towelheads can't even spell!
It's F-e-l-i-c-i-a-n-o:


10 posted on 04/19/2004 7:22:23 AM PDT by Ignatz (I am responsible for the content of this tagline)
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