Soldiers Magazine - February 2010

8/14/2019 Soldiers Magazine - February 2010

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IN June 2009, the adjutant generalof the Vermont National Guard satin a wood-paneled brieng room at

Ramstein Air Force Base for an updateon the African nation of Senegal.

Air Force Maj. Gen. MichaelDubie was making oce calls with staat U.S. Air Forces in Europe and 17thAir Force.

For 14 years, the Vermont Na-tional Guard has been in the NationalGuards State Partnership Programwith the Balkan nation of Macedo-nia, part of the former Yugoslavia,and now Vermont also is partneredwith Senegal.

USAFEs area of responsibilityincludes Macedonia, and 17th AirForce supports U.S. Africa Com-mand, which includes Senegal.

Adjutant generals are increas-ingly looking to Africa as theNational Guards 16-year-old,62-nation State Partnership Pro-gram expands.

Seven nations in Africa Commandspurview have partnerships and twomore are on the horizon.

e seven include: California andNigeria, New York and South Af-rica, North Carolina and Botswana,North Dakota and Ghana, Utah andMorocco, Vermont and Senegal andWyoming and Tunisia.

Partnerships with Liberia andKenya are expected to be announcedin the coming months, Guard ocials

said.Adjutant generals view oce calls

like the one Dubie made as mandatorystops as they pursue SPP activities withtheir partner nations. e NationalGuard is one part of a larger team benton improving partnership capacity.

Were talking about the integra-tion between what their mission isin their area of responsibility and theState Partnership Program, Dubieexplained. e State Partnership

Program is one of the tools in their toolkit to further their goaleither on abilateral or a multilateral basisandwe want to work on a collaborativebasis and be an asset for (combatantcommands) to accomplish whatever the(combatant commanders) goals are.

Macedonia is within U.S. Euro-pean Command, which watched Africauntil it spawned the creation of AFRI-COM last year, a separate combatantcommand headed by Gen. William E.Ward, himself once EUCOMs deputycombatant commander.

It was with EUCOM nations thatthe SPP started back in 1993, follow-ing the collapse of the Iron Curtain.State partnerships foster military-to-military, military-to-civilian and

Guard partnershipsspread in Africa

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ree years ago, Peter Kibet trans-ferred from the Kenyan health minis-try to the Walter Reed Project, whatUSAMRU-K is known as locally. Now,as Kerichos laboratory director, Kibet,35, oversees a variety of programs, toinclude a current study into HIV.

e patients of interest are thosehighly at risk for acquiring HIV, com-mercial sex workers and truck drivers,Kibet said. Basically, were trying tobetter understand the science behindHIV at the early stages of infection.

Young women, all volunteerparticipants, wait for the phlebotomist

in a nearby tent. At rst a large bloodsample is drawn and tested, followedby twice-weekly small samples. isgives researchers the ability to captureHIV infection within a few days, Kibetsaid.

Inside the blood-drawing tent,Janet, a 23-year-old woman from Keri-cho, wears a heated mitt that makes iteasier for phlebotomist David Wekuloto extract blood from veins in herhands. Wekulo, 34, from Kakamega,

Kenya, joined WRP in 2009 after hear-ing of its successful research projects.When he and his colleagues in thenearby USAMRU-K laboratoryKe-nyas only clinical research lab certiedby the College of American Patholo-gistslearn that a volunteer is HIVpositive, its sad news, Wekulo said.

Still, its good theynd out asearly as possible so there are ways to in-tervene, Wekulo said. Once enrolledin the study, they have access to medi-

cal care and social services through theWalter Reed Project.

In Kericho, USAMRU-Ks primaryobjective is evaluating HIV candidatevaccines to support the developmentof a globally eective HIV vaccinetoprotect U.S. military servicemembers,the local community and people world-wide, said Dr. Douglas Shaer, a U.S.Army civilian who serves as director inKericho.

In recent years, the research wascoupled with comprehensive HIVcare and treatment, an USAMRU-Kinitiative funded the through the U.S.

Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDSRelief. In 2003, Congress authorizedPEPFAR to provide millions of dollarsin the ght against HIV/AIDS, tuber-culosis and malaria. In 2008, Congressreauthorized the plan, providing $48billion over ve years.

In Kericho, that meant increasingtheir ability to care for people infectedwith HIV. As recent as six years ago,HIV care in the South Rift Valleycould rarely be found. In fact, less than

two dozen people in the Kericho areareceived anti-retroviral treatment forHIV in 2004. Now, with help fromUSAMRU-K and PEPFAR funds,more than 40,000 Kenyans receive careand treatment, Shaer said.

Care is now oered at 13 primarysites, normally in district hospitals and36 satellite clinics set up in rural healthcenters. ere are also 242 centersfor expectant motherskey sites forwomen to learn their status and pre-

vent transmission to their unborn childwith proper treatment, Shaer said.

We couldnt do HIV researchwithout meeting the needs of thiscommunity. PEPFAR provided muchneeded funding, Shaer said. In-tegrating HIV research and oeringcomprehensive care meets our ethicalobligation to the local people and fromthat we have gained community trust.

Connecting with Kenyans aectedby HIV also happens on a much morepersonal level. USAMRU-Ks HIV pro-gram extends to teens at the KerichoYouth Center, where adolescents learn

about HIV infection and preventionthrough peer-to-peer education. ePEPFAR-funded program also reachesyoung people at the nearby Live WithHope Center, which helps orphans andother vulnerable children.

During Walters visit, he alsostopped at the Agape Childrens Home,an orphanage where a couple dozenchildrenfrom toddlers to teenslive with HIV often contracted fromparents who succumbed to the disease.

Inside, Walter met Grace Soi, a formerschool teacher who was grateful tomeet Shaer and other WRP stawhorecommend correct anti-retroviraltreatment for the kids. Soldiers alsobring them presents and milk fromcows kept near USAMRU-Ks Kerichoguesthouse, she said.

ey dont directly fund usbutthey help morally and at times nan-cially though personal donations fromAmerican visitors Walter Reed brings

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when they stop by, Soi said. eyvegiven me so much advice on how tocare for the children. ats been agreat help to Agape.

Childrens covered coughs remindvisitors how their small charcoal rebarely heats the crowded room wherethey gather. Some kids get up andperform a song for Walter. Teenagegirls giggle amongst themselves. Tinyeyes from the smaller ones sparkle inamazement at the Soldier who sitsamong them.

Talking later about the fate of theAgape children nearly brings Walter totears, no doubt in part because he hasfour kids of his own.

Seeing orphans with HIV brings itall full circle. Were studying infectiousdisease; they are the reason we do whatwe do, Walter said. Its sad becausechildren suer from a disease we cantreat, but not yet cure. But, as a Soldierand a medical researcher, it rejuvenateswhy you serve. You want to tackle it,

hit the bench again. Despite the longhours in the lab, youre motivated to xsomething, to nd a solution.

USAMRU-K has a staof 10Soldiers, two Army civilians and morethan 400 Kenyan contractorsa mixof doctors, nurses, scientists and labo-ratory technicians, who work togetherto research, test and prevent disease.ey collaborate with Kenyan healthocials, U.S. civilian and militaryorganizations, private companies and

universities, plus nongovernmentalorganizations and non-prot founda-tions. With the establishment of U.S.Army Africa, USAMRU-K is now co-ordinating its established missions withnew Army initiatives on the continent.

U.S. Army ocers on tour in Ke-nya live in rented housing, often withtheir families. Oduty, they spendtime together. One night in Kericho,soccer fans gathered at Shaers houseto watch Liverpool beat ManchesterUnited over a Tusker beer and tradi-

tional Kenyan ugali(boiled corn our).Some, like Maj. Eric Lee, 38, of

Pocatello, Idaho, are on short tours tostudy a specic topic. In Lees case, itsdiarrhea. At the Kericho guesthouse,Lee updates Walter on his workaproject on surveillance of diarrhealpathogens throughout Kenya.

If we have U.S. Soldiers come toan environment that their bodies arenot used to, then having a survey ofdiarrheal pathogens is extremely impor-

tant, Lee said.Walters next stop is Kisumu, a

90-minute drive from the highlandsnear Kericho to the shores of Lake Vic-toria. He parks in front of the Kisumueld station, adjacent to the Kon-dele Childrens Hospital, which wasdedicated in August 2006 by then-Sen.Barack Obama.

Kisumu is the hub of Nyanzaprovince along Lake Victoria. e areais the heartland of the Luo people in

Kenya. President Obamas father camefrom the area and some of his paternalfamily still lives nearby. In Kisumu,researchers are mainly focused on ma-laria, studying potential vaccines andthe ever-changing parasites that causethe disease. Currently, USAMRU-K istaking part in a vaccine trial that mayproduce the worlds rst malaria vac-cine for children.

Maj. Charla Gaddy runs a labora-tory that processes blood, urine, stooland other samples from people taking

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part in USAMRU-K researchup to100 tests a day. She and her Kenyancolleagues make an impact on the livesof research participantsvery youngchildren who receive free health carefor the duration of the three-year study,known to researchers at MAL-55.

As a Soldier, a research scientistand a medical professional, I get to seethe impact that USAMRU-K is havingon the lives of people in western Ke-nya, Gaddy said. Medicine that thesekids dont normally get impacts their

lives positively. Some of these kids aregoing to make it to adulthood becauseof the impacts of this study.

In the long term, Gaddy hopes thereality of a potential malaria vaccinewill make a dierence for the peopleof Kenya and beyond. Not a day goesby that Gaddy and her colleagues dontsee and feel malarias eects, from aco-worker out sick with fever to a childdying, she said.

If this vaccine works, it will ben-

et not only the participants, but alsothe Kenyan people and people all overthe world, Gaddy said. Im proud tobe a part of Army research that mightaect so many.

Before heading back to Nairobi,Walter talks with Maj. Eric Wagar,director of USAMRU-Ks MalariaDiagnostics and Control Center ofExcellence, about his recent trip toNigeria. Since 2004, the center hashosted more than 500 students from

16 African countries in an outreach toimprove the technicians ability to readblood samples for malaria diagnosis.

e program has expanded to oermalaria microscopy instructions andmentorship in Nigeria and Tanzania,Wagar said.

Walter and Wagar head to thecantina, where they have lunch besidecolleagues from the U.S. Center forDisease Control and Prevention andKenya Medical Research Institute,who are integral partners for medical

studies in Kenya. Catching up withthem is Capt. Jerey Clark, 34, freshfrom his entomology researchcatch-ing, growing and studying everythingfrom mosquitoes to sand ies. ePennsylvania-natives insect-bornedisease research helps the Army betterunderstand diseases like malaria.

e best cure is prevention; thatsour motto in preventative medicine,Clark said. If we focus on controllingthe vector, we could get rid of malaria

itself.Saying farewell to his colleagues,

Walter heads eastward back to Nairobi.Along the way, hes reminded whySoldiers are hard at work combatingdiseases in East Africa. USAMRU-Kprojects are making an impactnotonly with U.S. military force healthprotection, but also with the Kenyanpeople, Walter said.

You can walk into any one of ourclinics, any day, and be touched by

what you see, Walter said at reallysticks with you. You go home, look atyourself in the mirror and say, I didthe military things, but I also made animpact on someones life. !

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Soldiers Magazine - February 2010