Page 147 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

• Insect bites can take away the few hours of rest that Among the most important regular actions that all
SOF may have; that rest could be the difference at the medical and commanding officers need to do is research
moment of battle. of any new effective line of products that can have a
• Reports from enemy combatants state that they can positive effect in preventing and controlling contagious
“smell when the Americans are coming.” diseases.
• Feeling clean is one of the most rewarding, comfort-
ing, and positive experiences when you are under ex- One key revolutionary formula comes from Zoono
treme pressure. Z-71 and GermFree24 (Zoono Group Ltd.; www
®
®
• The cost in terms of medical personnel, transportation, .zoono.com), two research products from New Zealand
logistics, beds, facilities, antibiotics and other drugs to that have been demonstrated effectiveness in labora-
bring a sick Soldier back to health is staggering. tory, clinical, and field test trials against influenza A
• A deployed sick Soldier is not only a logistic, medi- virus subtype H1N1 (swine), tuberculosis, Escherichia
cal, and monetary nightmare, it is also a huge security coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Legionella spp. (including
breach. Legionella-caused pneumonia), Salmonella cholerae-
suis, Listeria spp. (including L. monocytogenes ACM98),
Neisseria spp., Haemophillus spp., Clostridium spp.,
Products for Prevention Pseudomonas aeruginosa, methicillin-resistant Staphy-
and Control of Infectious Disease
lococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant En-
There are very few specialized products designed to pre- terococcus (VRE), Cryptosporidium parvum ( oocysts),
vent and control contagious diseases with our Warriors Citrobacter freundii MS2, Pseudomonas aeruginosa
in mind. Products that meet these needs must have most, NCTC 674, and fungi in clinical and field research tri-
if not all, of these features: als in Australia, Turkey, Germany, China, Dubai, the
United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States, and
• Lightweight other places around the world, with extraordinary ef-
• Multifunctional/multipurpose capabilities fectiveness. Zoono has received US Food and Drug
6
• Unscented/tactical features Administration approval for their product lines in the
• Waterless performance capability United States. 6
• Modular, to be able to generate kits for every weather
condition, terrain, and mission time The most important factor is that Z-716 and Germ-
• Compact carry-on features Free246 are nontoxic ; they kill pathogens by mechani-
7
• Ergonomics that allow opening/closing and using with cally breaking them down, rather than by chemical
one hand poisoning. These products have shown a remarkable
6
• Camouflage packaging residual effect that can outlast all of the antibacterial/
• Clinic- and field-tested effectiveness disinfectant brands currently on the market. 8
• Designed specifically for “on the field” use
Another line of products that has gotten a lot of atten-
The clearest mistake that a commanding officer or Com- tion has been developed by United Spirit of America
bat medic could make is to assume that personal hy- (www.usaspiritgov.com). Each of these products comes
giene is “just common sense.” It turns out that common in an ergonomic easy-to-carry kit (Kit in a Click ), all
™
sense is rare and it only takes one individual to get sick hanging from a lightweight carabiner (Figure 1).
to spread the “goods” all over the team.
Figure 1 United Spirit of America products.
General awareness of contagious disease
control and prevention is good, but not
good enough. So a pep talk telling pri-
vates how important it is to be clean is
good, but it does not make a real differ-
ence when so much is on the line. Com-
manding officers and medic personnel
have to make sure that each individual
deployed and/or involved in a Special Op-
eration have the proper products, knows
how to use them, and performs the hy-
giene procedures so potential contagious
and debilitating diseases are kept at bay.

Role of Preventive Medicine in SOF Medical Teams 137