The White Falcon - 22.10.1993, Blaðsíða 3

National Red Ribbon Week
By AMS1 (AW) John Wilson, CAAC Counselor
The week of October 25-29 is National Red Ribbon Week, also
known as National Drug-Free America Week. While the overwhelm-
ing majority of us live free of illegal drugs, there is still a lot of drug
abuse in the Navy. We would like to take a moment to remind the
community that the number one drug of abuse is alcohol.
Alcohol is a depressant with roughly the same effect on the central
nervous system as Valium. Research has determined as little as one-
third of an ounce of alcohol in the body can have an effect on
performance. What we don’t need research to prove is that too many
people are dead who would still be alive if it were not for alcohol.
Prohibition doesn’t work. Period. Since the beginning of recorded
history, over 40 attempts have been made to legislate people’s tastes
in recreational beverages. From the Roman Emperors, who once
burned the wine vineyards, to the American Congress, which passed
the 18th amendment in 1919, people have tried to make the use of
alcohol a legal or a moral issue. The bottom line is each one of us will
be faced with some very personal choices as to what our relationship
will be with ALL drugs, not just alcohol. The outcome of these
choices, some of them made in our early teens, will have a profound
effect on many of us much later in our lives.
During National Drug-Free America Week, please take some time
to examine what you have done lately to deglamorize the abuse of all
drugs in our community. Do you pay lip service to established policy?
Do you know what the established policy is? Would you know where
to look to find out? How long has it been since your department held
training on this topic? When your department holds a social function,
is it really acceptable not to drink? These are but a few of the questions
we should ask ourselves on a continuing basis, not just one week a
year.
The upcoming holiday season will see many of us returning to our
homes on leave. Many more of us will find ourselves at parties here
on the NATO Base. Whether in the U. S. or in Iceland, this season of
goodwill is traditionally punctuated with the abuse of alcohol. We
will never make this problem disappear, but we can make it less and
less acceptable by our own responsible use and by our intolerance of
abuse. From the staff of the Counseling and Assistance Center
Keflavik, we would like to be the first to wish you a safe, happy and
joyful holiday season.
Doctor, my baby has a fever
The Doc Talks
By LT Scott Rand, Family Practltionef
U. S. Naval Hospital Keflavik
W Several times a day we get calls from
parents concerned about children with fe-
vers. I am using this column to explain my
approach to fevers and to give some general
rules to go by.
The concern we have about a child’s tem-
perature changes depending on the child’s
age. When you call the emergency room with
questions about fevers, the first question the
corpsman will ask is “How old is your child?”
Children under the age of 2 months lack the
ability to give us clues that help us decide
between well and sick. Any child under that
age with a rectal temperature of 100.5 de-
grees or greater must be seen. This does not
mean you should regularly check your child ’ s
temperature, but if he/she appears to have a
fever and you find it elevated, that child must
be seen. No child under 2 months should be
treated at home for a fever.
After 2 months, we become somewhat less
concerned about fevers. The baby’s immune
system is more mature, and he/she is more
able to help us decide what is wrong. There
are no absolute mles, but in general a child
between 2 months and 2 1/2 years with a
fever of less than 103 degrees can be man-
aged at home as long as the main thing
causing concern is the temperature. If the
child is having trouble breathing, is acting
listless or lethargic or is giving you some
other reason to be concerned, please call the
hospital or bring your child in to be evalu-
ated.
After 2 1/2 years of age, a child’s symp-
toms are much more important than the
temperature. A child with a temp, of 104 who
is acting normally and has no specific com-
plaints is not really that concerning. You can
feel safe to treat a child this age symptomati-
cally for three to four days. He still may not
need any specific therapy but probably de-
serves to be evaluated at that point. On the
other hand, a child with a temp, of 99 who
doesn’t recognize his parents or is dehy-
drated and lethargic, is quite concerning.
Fever is a normal body defense mecha-
nism that may, depending on the age of the
child, require evaluation and treatment. By
following the simple mles above, you can
safely and confidently manage your child’s
fever. If you have questions about this or
other health concerns, please contact your
family physician at ext. 3384 or the commu-
nity health nurse at ext. 6585.
October 22,1993
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