A U.S. Army Reserve Combat Stress Control prevention team was dispatched to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to provide preventative mental health care to a U.S. Army airborne division and Special Operations forces. The team's mission was to ensure mental health readiness of units in the area of operations. In Bagram, Afghanistan, the Combat Stress Control team identified an...

During the recent war in Afghanistan (2001-2014), invasive fungal wound infections (IFIs) among US combat casualties were associated with risk factors related to the mechanism and pattern of injury. Although previous studies recognized that IFI patients primarily sustained injuries in southern Afghanistan, environmental data were not examined. We compared environmental conditions of this region...

Is Afghanistan approaching unheralded success or tragic failure? It depends upon whom one asks. Several years after an international coalition and US-backed Afghan insurgents removed the ruling Islamic fundamentalist Taliban from power, experts differ as to Afghanistan’s future: will it be stability and democracy, or a return to its chaotic and turbulent past? On the one hand, after decades of ...

Accurate crop performance monitoring and production estimation are critical for timely assessment of the food balance of several countries in the world. Since 2001, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has been monitoring crop performance and relative production using satellite-derived data and simulation models in Africa, Central America, and Afghanistan where ground-based monit...

Historically, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has sourced all its blood supplies from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. Recent ADF operations in the Middle East have highlighted a need to rely on other nations' blood supply systems. In 2008, the ADF embedded a surgical and intensive care team into the Netherlands-led forward health facility at the Uruzgan Medical Centre at Tarin Kowt i...

In this paper, the author at first briefly outlines the value of data in organizations and the opportunities and challenges in Afghanistan. Then the author takes the Kankor (National University Entrance Exam) data, particularly names of participants, locations, high schools and higher education institutions into account and explains how these data, that organizations in Afghanistan do not use f...

Introduction Diabetes is reaching epidemic levels in Afghanistan. This study identifies the risk factors associated with diabetes in Herat City, Afghanistan, and explores the prevalence of previously undiagnosed diabetes. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using multistage cluster sampling by adopting the World Health Organization's (WHO) STEPwise approach to Surveillance (STEPS). ...

The health consequences of sand particle inhalation are incompletely understood. This project evaluated the respiratory toxicity of sand particles collected at military bases near Fort Irwin USA, in Iraq (Camp Victory, Taji and Talil), and Khost Afghanistan. Our primary focus was on assessing the role of soluble metals in the respiratory toxicity of the sand particles using in vitro and in vivo...

BACKGROUND Recently, proposals have been made to improve mental health care for U.K. military veterans. Combat stress (CS), a veteran's charity, has provided mental health services for veterans since 1919. Since 2003, service users have included veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts; however, their pattern of help-seeking has not been evaluated. AIMS To describe the characteristics...

Following almost three decades of war, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. GDP per capita is estimated at about US$360 for 2007 (IMF 2007a). Life expectancy at birth is only 44.5 years (UNDP 2008), and maternal and child mortality are among the highest in the world. The literacy rate in the general population is very low (36 percent), especially for women (13 percent) (Wor...