At first I was like LOL, then I was like 0.o
The Army is partnering with the other uniformed services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find and treat servicemembers and civilians who were bitten by stray dogs and animals while deployed, according to a command news release.
Source – Stars & Stripes
The article says that the soldier who recently died from rabies, was the first death since 1967. I don’t mean to be cold, but isn’t there anything else besides enemy fire that has taken more than one life in 44 years? *shrug* As long as it’s not costing a mint, I don’t see the harm in slapping some of those posters up on bases and maybe shoehorning in a “Hey guys, remember don’t touch stray dogs, cats, etc…” in the next brief.
You guys that have served would know better than me. Do seemingly pointless things like this come down the pipeline every so often?
Comments
16 responses to “The War On Kittens & Puppies”
Good lord, next thing you’ll know they’ll say we can’t have sex with the local whores.
People need to calm the fuck down. Expose yourself to some minor diseases, builds immunities.
Poppy: Rabies is not a minor disease.
Really bro? Then answer me this: why do only one or two people die from rabies annually in the US? That’s, like, a worse kill count than Chicken Pox.
CHECK AND MATE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies#Prognosis
Only six people have ever survived rabies, once the symptoms set in. Let me make this clear: If you are bitten by an animal, you must get the rabies vaccine. If you do not, and if that animal had rabies, you are going to die.
Painfully.
Slowly.
And in absolute terror and unthinkable agony.
Rabies kills around 55,000 people per year. Now tell me rabies isn’t serious while you try to castle out of check.
Easy, I flip over the chessboard and scream at you like an infant until you either a) concede the victory to me, or b) give me some candy so that I’ll shut up.
And besides, how do I know that you didn’t edit that Wikipedia page in order to spread LIES?
Is that known as the Bad Santa defence?
“You guys that have served would know better than me. Do seemingly pointless things like this come down the pipeline every so often?”
I’d say more often than that. There’s always some officer behind a desk in DC with too much time on his hands.
Ossifer with an OER bullet that needs filled.
On the one hand, the odds of surviving rabies as a human once symptoms develops is so statistically small as to be zero. Only 5 people have EVER have survived rabies once symptoms appear.
On the other hand, the instance of Soldiers contracting rabies during deployment is also almost statistically nill – so any kind of large scale program to prevent it seems like a solution in search of a problem. If the scale of the risk were actually worth addressing, they could always offer pre-exposure rabies shots as a part of the vaccines given before deployment.
I’ve had pre-exposure rabies vaccine myself several times over the past 2 decades, because of my job. I’m counting on that to make me immune during the zombie apocalypes :)
On my most recent deployment, the COP I was on had a litter of puppies that were healthy and had been immunized by a medical personnel. But then this junk came down and my 1SG and Captain had them all shot and burned in our trash pit. We were pissed, but my higher command never missed an opportunity to kiss ass at any cost.
Later, when one of ours was KIA, they held the funeral service back for two days so a general could show up so they could kiss his ass.
I swear I got more PTSD from my command than from the Taliban.
ugh… that’s brutal. :/
Had a big friendly Lab that’d run around the Taji airfield every once in awhile.
Yep, they killed him.
Actually, no, this isn’t total BS. It is true in the US this is a non-issue, however combat zones are different and while I don’t have any facts or figures, I do have an anecdote.
We had a soldier new to my battalion die recently from rabies, shortly after arriving from treatment in Germany from a dog bite in Afghanistan: http://outbreaknews.com/2011/09/03/10th-mountain-division-soldier-kevin-r-shumaker-dies-contracting-rabies/
The Kevin Shumaker you knew is the guy mentioned in the Stars And Strips article which I linked.
Had to give rabies shots to an SF troop on the recent trip to Afghanistan. Played with one of the village dogs, ended up with scratches and slobber on his hands from the dog. Better than the old abdominal shots, but still not enjoyable.
Ok all you non-believers. Let me set the record straight.
Yes, in the US rabies cases (confirmed humans with the disease) is low, however the reservoirs (those animals that carry rabies naturally without dying from it) is high. Look at the CDC website for rabies cases and other information. Down range is a completely different story! General Order # 1 should be enough said. However I can see how having a fluffy animal can make a horrible warzone a bit more bearable. I am an animal lover myself and have adopted wild animals at home. But let me educate you on feral (stray) animals. Feral animals harbor not only rabies, but also ticks (#1 arthropod disease carrier OCONUS), fleas (vectors plague among other pathogens), and canines (dogs, foxes, etc…) are reservoirs for visceral Leishmaniasis. All of these pathogens , and not even including all of the intestinal parasites that humans can also contract, are found on “fluffy” in contingency situations. WHY? Because the host country does not have the resources to take care of them as we do in the US. So while “fluffy” looks to be healthy on the outside, it is not necessarily the case on the inside. The STANDARD must be followed by everyone. Imagine if everyone down range disregarded GO #1. There would be alot more cases like Spc. Shumaker. My job as a military entomologist is to educate troops on the threats of not only arthropods, but any other plant or animal that can potentially be a threat at home or abroad. Prevention is the key to keep human cases at a low. Hence, the publicity on rabies and bats that scare people to call the local health department whenever a bat is found. Bottom line….yes it sucks to be the officer in charge to emphasize the GO #1 to the troops, but by doing so you are saving their life, from at least a threat without a gun.