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Officials remain proactive in tackling trainee illnesses

  • Published
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) --  Lackland Air Force Base officials remain proactive in its efforts to control the occurrence of upper respiratory illness amongst its Basic Military Training population.

For the past two years, Lackland AFB has had one of the lowest respiratory illness rates of all Department of Defense military training sites, and base officials reactivated the bed rest flight on March 18 when 17 cases of URI were reported over a three-day period.

Though final results are still pending, preliminary results indicate the possibility of adenovirus 14 in these cases. As of March 25, 15 trainees were in the bed rest flight.

Trainees remain on bed rest for an average of 2.5 days before returning to training after they are symptom free for 24 hours.

"Airmen are our most valuable asset and we take their health and safety very seriously," said Brig. Gen. Leonard A. "Len" Patrick, the 37th Training Wing commander. "Although Lackland AFB has enjoyed one of the lowest respiratory illness rates of all DOD military training sites over the past two years, we continue to take aggressive measures to prevent the spread of upper respiratory illness in Basic Military Training."

Four primary preventive measures that have proven their effectiveness and continue to be used include:
-- Early identification and isolation of ill trainees.
-- Stress personal hygiene and issue all trainees personal hand sanitizers.
-- Use of hospital-approved cleaning solutions on all contact surfaces to stop the spread of viruses.
-- Education of our population about URI prevention and ensure immediate medical care for those who exhibit symptoms such as sore throat, headache and fever.

Basic military trainees exhibiting symptoms of URI first began placement on bed rest on May 26, 2007, as the number of trainees exhibiting symptoms first began to rise and adenovirus was identified on preliminary testing. It eventually proved to be adenovirus-14, a more virulent strain.

The bed rest flight remained active through the remainder of 2007, eventually being inactivated at the end of December 2007 when levels of URI returned to well below the baseline weekly rate of 0.5 percent (23 trainees) per 4,600 trainees.