MC 41

 

Memorandum from Caroline Richards

 

Whilst ISAF was deployed in Afghanistan last year there were several cases of Whooping cough. One officer who came back for R&R with the 'Kabul cough' , which was infact whooping cough, gave it to his newborn baby, who nearly died. When the baby was discharged from hospital, it stopped breathing at home a week later and had to be resuscitated by it's mother and readmitted. There were several other cases known to me personally. These included my husband, COMARRC, who was airlifted to the French field hospital in Kabul, on a drip & oxygen, and then was flown back to germany by US forces to recuperate. Another senior officer in the ISAF HQ was also very ill with whooping cough.

 

I am informed that the pertussis immunisation was implicated in Gulf war syndrome, and that is the reason that our troops are not being vaccinated. However, I am also told that other armies do vaccinate against whooping cough and I would like to feel that this has been properly researched with regards to our own troops. It is a condition that is hard to diagnose but can be very debilitating. And I would hate another family to go through the anxiety & distress that the family above had to endure.

 

14 November 2007