DHCC Deployment Health News

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April 15, 2008Military Releases High Casualty FiguresDepartment Of Defense's Latest Numbers: 31,590 Troops Wounded On Battle FieldThe Department of Defense has released its latest American military causality numbers for those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the figures reveal non-fatal casualties that go well beyond the more than 4,000 U.S. troops who have died so far. As of April 5, a total of 36,082 members of the U.S. military have been wounded in action and killed in Iraq, since the beginning of the war in March 2003, and in Afghanistan, where the war there began in October 2001. The 36,082 number breaks down to 4,492 deaths and 31,590 wounded. According to the same DoD "casualty" counts, an additional 38,631 U.S. military personnel have also been removed from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan for "non-hostile-related medical air transports."Source : CBS Evening News Caring for veterans' mental healthConference's focus: Going 'beyond the yellow ribbon' There are 160,000 American troops in Iraq. "If everybody comes home tomorrow," said Frederick Bush of the Upstate Veterans Affairs Health Care Network, "and comes to the VA on Monday, we're probably going to have some longer than normal wait times." Bush was kidding the standing-room-only crowd at an annual conference of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz. But his point was a serious one: America's veterans are going to need a lot of therapy for a very long time. Not all, Bush said, will battle post traumatic stress disorder, but nearly every one will struggle to readjust in the civilian world.Source : Times Herald-Record 3.3% rate of divorce holds, Pentagon saysResults surprising considering stress wars are putting on couplesThe divorce rate in the armed forces held steady last year at 3.3 percent, a surprising finding given the stress that marriages are under during persistent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Source : Honolulu Advertiser Army fights STDs with free condomsTwo thousand free condoms are being placed in Army gyms and clubs around Kaiserslautern in an effort to combat sexually transmitted diseases. Clear plastic bins began showing up late Friday afternoon with stickers that read: "Readiness doesn't end when the uniform comes off." Source : Stars and Stripes New Smallpox Vaccine Proves Effective in MiceThe Danish pharmaceutical firm Bavarian Nordic announced last week that a single dose of its next-generation Imvamune smallpox vaccine can protect mice against a virus similar to smallpox.Source : Global Security Newswire