Posted on 02/12/2004 8:28:09 PM PST by Libloather
Some soldiers can't donate
By MARTHA QUILLIN, Staff Writer
Thursday, February 12, 2004 7:18AM EST
FORT BRAGG -- The threat of a parasitic disease spread by a desert sand fly's bite has put a crimp in the military's blood supply.
Thousands of soldiers returning from service in Iraq are learning that they are not eligible to donate blood for one year from the date they left the country, because of the danger of leishmaniasis.
Civilian contractors and others also are being barred from giving blood even as the Armed Services Blood Program is trying to rebuild its seven-year supply of frozen blood products, as well as to supply blood to field hospitals in Iraq.
Leishmaniasis can take several forms, depending on the species of the leishmania parasite involved, and can take a year to produce symptoms.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis, the most common, can cause severe skin lesions that are often misdiagnosed and can be difficult to treat, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 200 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis have been reported among U.S. soldiers since January 2003, most of them in recent months, when large numbers of troops began returning from Iraq.
No cases of the potentially fatal form of the disease, visceral leishmaniasis, which affects internal organs, have been reported among U.S. service members, according to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which treats all the military cases.
Most often, the disease is spread by the bite of a sand fly that has been infected with the parasite, but it also can be spread through blood transfusions, needle-sharing and laboratory accidents.
Civilian blood-collection agencies, including the American Red Cross, also are deferring blood donations by those who have been to Iraq lately. Those who have spent a total of at least three months recently in Europe can't give either, because of a fear of mad cow disease. And anyone traveling extensively in areas where malaria is rampant also is disqualified, as are those with tattoos and body piercings.
"It kind of limits the pool," said Sgt. Justin Metz, a New Jersey Army reservist called up a year ago to help run a traveling blood drive for the Armed Services Blood Program. The program operates separately from civilian blood collection agencies, taking blood mostly from military personnel and providing blood products to military medical facilities, whose clients may be active service members and their dependents, or retirees. Field hospitals sometimes also are used to provide medical treatment for local residents.
Military facilities also can accept blood from civilian sources, such as the Red Cross.
When he takes the operation to bases in Florida and South Carolina, where soldiers are younger, newer to the service and less traveled, 400 to 500 people might offer to donate, Metz said. At Fort Bragg, where he set up Wednesday for a regular, quarterly blood drive in the basement of Womack Army Medical Center, Metz is happy to get 60 donations.
Donor recruits include military personnel and any civilians who happen to be on base and want to help. Metz likes to tell them that by the next week their blood might be on a plane to Kuwait, on its way to Iraq, where it might be used to save the life of a soldier injured in a mortar attack or by a roadside bomb. Such injuries can easily require 40 units of blood or more.
Capt. Josh A. Hinkle likes to imagine the people who might benefit from the pint he gave Thursday. Hinkle, who works as a veterinarian on post, hadn't donated blood in a while and decided to come in part because so many of his comrades returning from overseas wouldn't be able to, he said.
Pfc. Mary Ellen Wright came to donate because soon she won't be allowed. The 19-year-old medical lab technician has been given her first overseas posting -- Germany -- where mad cow disease is a danger. She has been told she could be deployed from there to Iraq.
"It's an important thing to do," she said before rolling up her camouflage sleeve. "It's pretty effortless. It takes about an hour out of your day, and it really is the gift of life."
Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or marthaq@newsobserver.com.
In the Triangle, the American Red Cross accepts blood donations at its offices. Call for an appointment.
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