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Posted by: S. Ward Casscells, M.D. Our work in Africa is not new. Historically, DoD has worked in Africa through either Central Command or through European Command, and only recently have we better aligned our efforts to the needs of the African nations by forming Africa Command. This new venture marks an opportunity to change the way we do business by sharing expertise with other U.S. governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations. In order to support the new command surgeon, I am hosting an important conference called U.S. Africa Command: Health as a Bridge to Peace and Stability, January 8 and 9 at the Institute of Medicine here in Washington D.C.

U.S. Army Europe's only airborne surgical team is headed to Afghanistan this spring to provide quick, lifesaving surgeries for U.S. troops during the upcoming "surge."

Working together toward the same end-strengthening the health care capacity and crisis response capabilities of African nations to ultimately empower Africans to improve their health and security-was the theme of a conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Military Health System that introduced the new U.S. Africa Command surgeon to an array of partners from the military, Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the African Union.

The offensive in southern Afghanistan hasn't come without its casualties for U.S. and NATO forces there. Stripes reporter Drew Brown tells us that over the last few weeks helicopter ambulance crews from the 2nd Platoon "Gypsies" of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade have pulled dozens of wounded - and sometimes dead - U.S., British and Afghan troops from the battlefield. Brown's dispatch takes you to the battlefield and safely back out again with a group of dedicated medevac crewmembers.

Spc. Brendan Beely and Staff Sgt. Gabriel Wright of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR), a subcommand of U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), recognized a problem, and invented a device for securing medical tubes and catheters intubated within a patient that will prevent damage to the incisors by locating separate bite blocks on the molars. It also helps to prevent pressure sores on patients' lips.

The U.S. Army is using a mobile application and SMS to make sure that soldiers returning home from duty get the healthcare services they need.

Fifty-one American troops in Iraq have been diagnosed with and treated for swine flu, while another 71 soldiers remain in isolation suspected of contracting the potentially deadly virus, the U.S. military said Sunday.

A new study of US veterans suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms that increases heart disease and diabetes risk, may be linked. Dr Pia S. Heppner of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System in La Jolla and her colleagues found that the more severe a person's PTSD symptoms, the more likely they were to also have the metabolic syndrome. Evidence is mounting that exposure to trauma can worsen physical health, including increasing heart disease risk, Heppner and her team note in the journal BMC Medicine.

White, 37, of Cromwell, is an outreach counselor at the Hartford Vet Center in Rocky Hill. He is a member of a new breed of counselors hired by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in an attempt to avoid the Vietnam-era mistake of ignoring post-traumatic stress disorder and other readjustment problems experienced by soldiers returning from war zones. He was hired in 2004, one of about 50 counselors recruited because they had served in Iraq.

More than 80 U.S. military personnel contracted malaria last year despite all the medications and precautions made available to the forces, according to a recent Pentagon study.

Research from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), http://www.dvbic.org/, indicates as many as 10 to 20 percent of U.S. troops who had combat exposure may have sustained a concussion during the time they were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) aims to advance the clinical care and social welfare of U.S. Veterans through research, education and training on PTSD and stress-related disorders. This site is an educational resource on PTSD and traumatic stress, for veterans and also for mental health care providers, researchers and the general public.

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - The Army has been dismissing so many overweight applicants that its top recruiter, trying to keep troop numbers up in wartime, is considering starting a slim-down camp to transform chubby trainees into svelte soldiers.

Falls Church, Va.-The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and TRICARE are offering new innovative online tools to help military service members keep their New Year's resolutions to quit tobacco.

TUESDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A decade-long study into post-traumatic stress disorder among combat veterans and their identical twins has yielded critical information on the root causes of this devastating condition. The researchers found that both genetic and environmental factors increase the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The work, to be presented Tuesday at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., was sponsored by both the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and the Veterans Administration.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells speaks about global health and national security. (Speech given at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., January 7, 2009.)

The Defense Department is investigating new treatments as part of a focused, sustained campaign to assist wounded warriors suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, a senior U.S. military official told Pentagon journalists recently.

S. Ward Casscells, M.D. , Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, talks about his visit with British Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Louis Lillywhite with regards to combat care, care in UK, and PTSD.

Regrowing a fingertip cut off in an accident sounds like something from a futuristic movie. But with innovative technology developed by the U.S. Army, such regrowth is possible today.

The U.S. military is rethinking its "golden hour" goal for critically injured troops, questioning whether it should spend a little longer evacuating patients to get them to a better hospital.