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The Latest News from the World of Public Health Profiles by Mike Field SINAI DESERT
“When we were first there in July and August, it was about 120 degrees in the sun,” remembers Lt. Colonel Sam Ruben, MD, MPH ’81. “All you could do was [lie] low, drink plenty of water, and stay indoors in the air conditioning.” For Ruben and the other members of his unit, keeping cool was what their presence in the Sinai was all about. As the U.S. component of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), their job was to help enforce the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Though armed, MFO soldiers are stationed only to observe and report, and must obey strict use-of-force guidelines. Just the second National Guard unit to be used in lieu of active army personnel in the Sinai, the Oregon Guard filled the peacekeeping force’s 43rd rotation, scheduled to last about half a year. (The unit was due to return to Oregon as this article was going to press.) Ruben was stationed at South Camp, a former Israeli military base on the coast of the Red Sea that was returned to Egypt after the peace accords were signed. It has been used by MFO soldiers ever since.
As battalion surgeon for his unit while stationed in the Sinai, Ruben treated the everyday injuries of soldiers engaged in peacetime activities. But he also got to help work on a stage-two vaccine trial in a joint Army-Navy development of a Shigella flexneri vaccine. Shigella, he explains, causes severe dysentery, which is a major cause of non-battle injuries in “forward-deployed soldiers and marines,” as well as high morbidity and mortality in children in developing nations. Ruben participated in the research with investigators at the Navy Medical Research Unit–Cairo, an infectious disease research laboratory, he says, “that boasts many achievements by distinguished researchers, quite a few of whom have been Hopkins grads.” It is hoped the vaccine, developed by the Pasteur Institute in Paris through funding by the U.S. Army, will impart lifetime immunity. Previous clinical trials were conducted in Pakistan and concurrent work is under way by U.S. Air Force researchers in Turkey. If successful, such a vaccine could save the lives of many children, though its approval for use would realize a more immediate goal for the military, which has historically been eager to fight any infectious disease that diminishes combat readiness. Following his Sinai duty, Ruben will return to his position as staff psychiatrist for California’s Pelican Bay State Prison (just across the state line from his home in Oregon). He earned his MPH at the School as part of his residency in Preventive Medicine at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. After 10 years of service (including three while he was in school), Ruben worked as a district health officer in Hawaii before moving to Oregon. Most recent news from the Middle East falls into one of two categories: bad or worse. But Ruben reports that in the southern Sinai at least, peace has planted roots and is beginning to blossom: “The Sinai coast of the Red Sea is being built up as a resort area. It’s beautiful and the [scuba] diving is unbelievable.” |
