HHS Secretary Meets with Patients in El Salvador Who Received Care from U.S. Public Health Service Officers Assigned to the U.S.S. Boxer

June 25, 2008 – As part of his visit to Central America, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt visted Acajutla, El Salvador, one of the sites at which the U.S.S. Boxer stopped on its two-month mission designed to increase the operational capacity of U.S. Government personnel to deliver humanitarian assistance, perform public-health assessments, repair public-health infrastructure and provide training of local health-care workers.

While in Acajutla, Secretary Leavitt and the Salvadoran Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance, the Honorable José Guillermo Maza, M.D., toured a small clinic that had been a staging area for care during the U.S.S. Boxer’s stop in El Salvador.  Inside the clinic, the Secretary met with local health officials, and a dozen patients who received care from personnel deployed from the U.S.S. Boxer, including from HHS U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps officers assigned to the ship.

The U.S.S. Boxer visited Acajutla from May 19, 2008, to June 1, 2008, staffed by diverse medical, dental and public-health professionals from the U.S. military, the HHS/USPHS Commissioned Corps and non-governmental organizations.  The 13 officers in the HHS/USPHS Commissioned Corps who participated with the U.S. Navy on the mission of the U.S.S. Boxer in Latin America did so in support of Secretary Leavitt’s Health-Diplomacy Initiative.

CAPT Dean Coppola, who ordinarily works in the Office of the Surgeon General within the HHS Office of Public Health and Science, led the HHS/USPHS commissioned officers aboard the U.S.S. Boxer.  “The mission in El Salvador was truly outstanding.  Our officers were able to provide excellent primary health care, dental services, optometry services, environmental health services, pharmaceutical support and veterinary health care in a cross-cultural, indigenous environment.  The people of Acajutla and the surrounding area in El Salvador seemed extremely grateful, not only for the services we provided but also for the health education classes we held,” said CAPT Coppola.

Some of the U.S.S. Boxer’s accomplishments in and around Acajutla, El Salvador, include the following:

• The medical team, which included five Salvadoran providers and five local medical students, averaged 925 patients per day;

   

• The dental team provided medical and dental care at La Sunza School in Acajutla to an average of 1164 patients a day.  HHS/USPHS dentists and hygienists provided an average of 748 dental interventions a day, including extractions, sealants and fluoride treatments;

   

• The optometry team averaged 145 patients, and distributed 210 glasses per day in Miravalle;

   

• The veterinary team worked with local agricultural representatives on dairy and beef cattle, and administered vaccines, vitamins and de-worming in an average of 300 encounters per day;

   

• The pharmacy provided 1,969 prescriptions per day;

   

• Health-education activities focused on maternal and child health and other public-health topics, and targeted first-year medical students, para-health professionals, nurses and physicians; and

   

• The preventive-medicine team conducted a training class on food safety for food inspectors in the Sonsonate region.

   

Secretary’ Leavitt’s visit to Acajutla enabled him to see first hand the effect of his Health-Diplomacy Initiative.  The trip was the Secretary's fifth visit to Central America while at HHS.

Last revised: July 01, 2008