Public health NCO 'tops in AF'

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Malia Jenkins
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Tech. Sgt. Ireneo Alfaro, NCO in charge of community health element, not only received a Navy and Marine Achievement Medal for his work while deployed, but was also named the Air Force's top public health NCO for 2011.

"I'm kind of surprised at winning this award," said Alfaro. "The first thing that comes to mind is how did I win this award at the AF level?"

While deployed to Thailand for 30 days as a senior preventive medicine technician for Operation Cobra Gold, Alfaro played a critical role in preventing an outbreak of salmonella.

"We had one case of salmonella were a Marine became very sick," explained Alfaro. "After the case was confirmed by the local hospital, I started my investigation to find out where the source was."

After locating the main sources of salmonella, Alfaro informed the commander and prevented approximately 4,000 service members from eating at the location to control the outbreak.

WIth only three days of training on-site, Alfaro also helped inspect the equipment loaded onto aircraft and ships to ensure no insects or vector borne diseases were brought to another country.

"When people look at public health (they say) 'all I know about public health is (diseases) and food', but no, we make sure there's not a single person that will deploy with a medical condition," said the 10-year Air Force veteran.

Alfaro also had some notable achievements back at home station.

At Kadena, the Philippine-native was in charge of occupational health, which ensures working environments are physically and mentally safe and healthy. His two-man team was able to raise the compliance rate for examinations from 78 percent to 100 percent.

"All it takes is hard work and dedication," said Alfaro. "Without the help of my fellow co-workers, we would not have accomplished so much."

In addition to Alfaro's Air Force award, several other Airmen from the 18th Medical Group earned Pacific Air Forces-level awards:

Senior Airman Clint Copeland earned the Aerospace Physiology Airman of the Year Award
Senior Airman Mary Fawcett earned the Outstanding Dental Airman of the Year for 2011
Maj. Ma Martin earned the Outstanding Achievement in Nursing Force Development Award