Second HHS Team Joins the Mission of the USNS Comfort

CDR Bob Smith, HHS Commissioned Corps dentist (green top), and CAPT Joe Rusz, U.S. Navy dentist (blue top), examine patients at Delfinas Rivas Escuela, near Hacienda Santa Emilia, El Salvador.

July 26, 2007 - A second team of officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has joined the humanitarian mission of the hospital ship USNS Comfort in Nicaragua.

The HHS team, composed of physicians, veterinarians, dentists, nurses and other public-health specialists, will remain on board the ship for approximately one month, and will take part in the care-giving activities of the Comfort in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Perú.

Update from July 31, 2007: The HHS team on board the USNS Comfort provided veterinary and medical care at Delfinas Rivas Escuela, a school near Hacienda Santa Emilia converted into a temporary clinic, in the Republic of El Salvador. In just one day, HHS veterinarian LCDR Gregory Langham provided care to 37 head of cattle, seven horses, two pigs, three goats, 67 dogs, eight cats, three rabbits, and one parrot. Numerous consultations took place on animals with conditions such feline anorexia, iatrogenic equine trauma, healed trauma of the lens in a cow, multiple subcutaneous benign lipomas in a dog, and significant tick infestations of the ears in numerous horses. Three students from the veterinary college in San Salvador participated as well, which gave them an opportunity to work on large animals they would not normally have in the course of their classroom training.

For more information:

• Mission to Latin America and Caribbean
• At Sea and on Shore with the USNS Comfort
• USNS Comfort Photo Gallery

Last revised: August 01, 2007