FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Koentop
August 24, 2007
202-690-7694

A multidisciplinary team of officers in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is serving on the USS Peleliu, a multipurpose amphibious ship on a medical, dental, public health, and humanitarian-assistance mission in Southeast Asia and the Western and Outer Pacific Islands. The ship departed San Diego on May 23, 2007. In addition to providing humanitarian assistance, the team will help build the public health infrastructure in communities near where the ship docks.

The Commissioned Corps is taking part in this mission with three sequential teams of up to five Corps officers each remaining with the USS Peleliu for approximately 1 month. The Commissioned Corps officer in charge is CAPT Kathleen Downs, a pharmacist in the Office of the Secretary, who remains with the USS Peleliu for the duration of the 3-month mission.

During its voyage, the USS Peleliu is delivering medical, dental, veterinary, educational, and preventive medicine and engineering services to people of the Western Pacific region. For example, in addition to primary patient care, USS Peleliu’s nurses trained more than 400 Filipino heath providers during an education exchange in July, and the mission’s veterinary care professionals treated close to 1,000 animals.

The Commissioned Corps officers are working with the U.S. Navy, Army, and Air Force as well as health care professionals from the uniformed services of foreign partner nations. The effort is being carried out with volunteers from several non-governmental organizations and partnerships with local medical professionals.

Because the ship is designed to facilitate the transfer of personnel ashore (via boats and helicopters), the USS Peleliu is an extraordinarily effective ship for performing humanitarian assistance and public health infrastructure building missions. The USS Peleliu’s first foreign port on the mission was Manila, Philippines, in mid-June. Subsequent visits include the Bicol region of the Philippines, as well as sites in Mindanao, Philippines; Da Nang, Vietnam; Singapore; Madang, Papua New Guinea; Gizo, Solomon Islands; and Majuro, Marshall Islands before arriving into Honolulu, Hawaii, in mid-September.

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides highly trained and mobile health professionals who protect, promote and advance the health and safety of our nation. As America’s uniformed service of public health professionals, the Commissioned Corps achieves its mission through rapid and effective response to public health needs, leadership and excellence in public health practices and advancement of public health science. The Commissioned Corps is a specialized career system designed to attract, develop and retain health professionals who may be assigned to federal, state or local agencies or international organizations.

Join America’s Public Health Team

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps has jobs for highly skilled men and women who seek professional fulfillment, enjoy challenges and want to improve the quality of public health for the nation’s communities that are most in need. For information about how you can make a difference with the Commissioned Corps, call us at 800-279-1605 or 240-453-6125, or visit our Web site at www.usphs.gov.