US navy hospital ship en route from Hawaii to RP

PEARL HARBOR (AP) — The US navy hospital ship USNS Mercy arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday en route to a five-month humanitarian mission to the Philippines and other points in Southeast Asia.

The trip follows the white hulled vessel’s voyage to Indonesia last year to treat victims of the December 2004 tsunami.

"It’s a demonstration of our interest, our commitment to helping people in the region," said Adm. Gary Roughead, US Pacific Fleet commander. "It’s going to areas where the assistance is needed."

The mission comes as the United States military strives to improve its image in the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries Washington considers critical to its efforts to combat terrorism.

Earlier this year, the United States donated $11 million worth of hospital equipment to the Indonesian armed forces.

The Navy hopes to arrange for the Mercy to visit Indonesia on the current trip, but plans to do so have not been completed.

Hundreds of doctors and nurses from non-government organizations - both American and from the countries the Mercy will be visiting - plan to join the mission.

Dr. Ramon Sy, president of Honolulu-based Aloha Medical Mission, said advanced facilities aboard the Mercy would enable his doctors to offer patients a higher level of medical care.

"It will allow us to do more surgery because there is an established facility where we can do the operations," said Sy. "Before we used to go to the hospitals that are not very well equipped. (The Mercy) has the latest technology."

The ship boasts four X-ray rooms, a CAT scan unit and a dental surgery suite, among other equipment.

The Mercy will go to the southern Philippines — an area Aloha Medical Mission has not been able to visit in the past because of the dangers posed by the decades-long secessionist war being waged by Filipino Islamic insurgents.

Navy public health experts will pay close attention to the quality of the drinking water in the areas they visit and monitor for tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

Capt. Gail L. Hathaway said she looked forward to following up on the work she did during the Mercy’s tsunami relief mission.

"There’s plenty of leftover work. We took care of the most important things that would touch the most people. So now we can go back and add to what we did," said Hathaway, an officer with the Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit 6 based at Pearl Harbor.

Last year, the Mercy treated more than 107,000 patients, performed 466 surgeries and carried out 6,900 dental procedures in Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.