IDF goes on swine flu watch
Rising number of H1N1 virus cases among soldiers taking part in Jewish Agency's Taglit-Birthright project prompts military's chief medical officer to order mandatory five-day leave for servicemen involved, just to be on safe side
With swine flu cases among Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the rise, the military has decided to take some preventive measures in order to stop the H1N1 virus from spreading, Ynet learned Sunday.
Brigadier-General Nachman Ash, the IDF's chief medical officer, has recently ordered that soldiers who come in contact with the Jewish American youths taking part in the Jewish Agency's Taglit-Birthright program will be given a leave in order to make sure they are flu-free.
Some 20 troops who have been working with the Taglit youth have contracted the H1N1 virus over the past few weeks. The IDF failed to identify the source of the flu at first, and so these soldiers returned to their unit and infected their comrades, raising the number of servicemen infected with the flu to several dozens.
Some of the units infected had no choice but to declare a temporary shutdown of either training or operational activities. The Navy, for instance, had to shut down the training of one of its torpedo boats for several days, after a number of the soldiers serving on it got sick.Given the situation, Ash decided to give any soldier taking part in the program a five-day leave, thus preventing infections.
While the directive is likely to curb the virus from spreading through the armed forces, it might deter commanding officers from assigning soldiers to the Taglit project. Those assigned to the project are absent from their units for a week, but the new order means they would be gone for two.
Nevertheless, the IDF said that the soldiers' health was a top priority, and that the military had no intention of taking any unnecessary risks.
