January 16, 2007

Civic Action Team Promotes Preventive Medicine

Story by U.S. Air Force Lt.Col. Daniel Shoor
Commander, CJTF-HOA Civic Action Team

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti -- Today, medical needs exceed supply. In the Horn of Africa, the civic action team at Combined Task Force–Horn of Africa is bringing preventive medicine strategies and items to try to ease some of the resultant strain.

Preventive medicine is the part of medicine which tries to promote health and prevent disease rather than curing it. It is made up of three points for intervention: primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention.

Primary prevention is the cornerstone of preventive medicine. It involves preventing diseases and conditions before they take root in the body. There are many ways to promote health and prevent disease such as improving human resistance to disease, changing the hazardous environmental exposures, and changing risky behaviors that increase the risk of disease.

Frequently, medical doctors, nurses and technicians from CJTF-HOA and Camp Lemonier work alongside national medical doctors, nurses and technicians to help promote primary prevention issues. These programs are one part of Medical Civic Action Projects (MEDCAP) and occur throughout the Horn of Africa region.
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