After breakfast, a trip to sick bay for soldiers in Kuwait

[thedrifter]

April 13, 2003

After breakfast, a trip to sick bay for soldiers in Kuwait

By Gina Cavallaro
Times staff writer



CAMP NEW JERSEY, Kuwait ? Nearly 40 soldiers fell ill here today in what leaders think might have been a flash epidemic of food poisoning.
The first cases began trickling in around 10 a.m., just a couple of hours after morning chow. Many said they had eaten chipped beef or eggs for breakfast in one of three tents where meals are served.

?They all came from one tent and they all developed signs and symptoms a few hours after eating breakfast,? said Sgt. Kellie Malone, the treatment NCO in charge from the 547th Area Support Medical Company.

The sick soldiers told Malone they had eaten eggs and chipped beef, although some said they had only eaten a boiled egg or scrambled eggs. ?The common thing is the egg,? she said.

The ill soldiers, almost half with the 4th Infantry Division?s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, suffered severe vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and cramping. They were treated intravenously for dehydration and administered phenegran, an anti-nausea medication. The soldiers were also treated with Cipro as a guard against a possible bacterial infection.

After about two hours under treatment, the patients were feeling well enough to get up and return to their units, Malone said. No one was evacuated.

In spite of the suspicious breakfast selections, the possibility of a virus is under consideration. No conclusion had been reached by the end of the day, however, and a preventive medicine team was due to arrive April 14 to assess the camp's dining facilities.

?There are a number of tests that can be run. We're leaving it in the doctor's hands right now,? said Lt. Col. Steven Middleton, garrison commander of Camp New Jersey whose job title here carries the term of ?mayor.? ?They'll look at procedures in the mess hall, examine food remaining from the suspect meal.?

Daily menus are chosen by a dietician with V Corps, but the food is prepared by outside contractors who serve three meals a day to feed the more than 7,000 people now in camp.


Sempers,

Roger