FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Koentop
July 6th, 2007
202-690-7694

A team of 17 U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers is serving on the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that departed Norfolk, VA, on June 15, to begin a medical, public health and oral health mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 4-month mission of the USNS Comfort is to provide oral and primary care health services in communities near where the ship docks. The Commissioned Corps officers are working with the U.S. Navy, Army, and Coast Guard, as well as with nonprofit organizations Project Hope and Operation Smile.

Commissioned Corps team officers deployed to the USNS Comfort are dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, environmental health officers, environmental engineers, veterinarians, a physician assistant, a pharmacist, and a surgeon. The team is led by the Commissioned Corps officer in charge, Captain Craig Shepherd, who is the chief environmental health officer of the U.S. Public Health Service.

“We have taken helicopter trips to incredibly remote sites to treat patients, many of whom have never had access to dental care before. In every case, the patients are friendly and grateful. This mission is very fulfilling, exciting, and interesting,” says Commander Steven Johnson, a Corps dentist.

Each team of Corps officers is aboard for one leg of the mission, about a month, except for the officers in charge, who are on board for the entire mission. Commissioned Corps officers aboard the USNS Comfort gain valuable experience treating indigenous patients in environments with few resources—skills that will be useful as officers provide care to vulnerable populations back in the United States.

The USNS Comfort is delivering care in Belize City, Belize; Puerto Barrios, Guatemala; Colon, Panama; Corinto, Nicaragua; Acajutla, El Salvador; Salaverry, Peru; Manta, Ecuador; Bahia Malaga, Colombia; Port-Au-Prince, Haiti; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Georgetown, Guyana; and Paramaribo, Suriname, before arriving back in Norfolk, VA, on October 15.

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.