Food used to treat wounds

Published March 28, 2013
By Airman 1st Class Madelyn Brown
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An Airman goes on a convoy in a deployed combat location. He is vigilant for the enemy, his mind trained and focused. He keeps the scope of his weapon aimed and ready to protect himself and his fellow Airmen.

When that convoy rolls over an improvised explosive device, everything fades out. When he comes to, the smoke has barely settled and fire fight is surrounding him while his battle buddies perform self-aid buddy-care on his left leg. It's throbbing and filled with shrapnel.

The Airman survives the IED explosion, survives an initial combat wound and makes it back to a hospital facility. The last enemy he faces is the drug resistant virus that found its way into the gash on his leg. Many frontline Airmen and combat military members have battled this potentially deadly disease.

Baumannuii is a bacterium that has become so common for military members to contract while in combat in the middle east that it has earned the nick name Iraqibacter, said Maj. Carlos Maldonado, 60th Medical Group chief of molecular diagnostics. It is life threatening for compromised military members.

Due to a critical medical need requested by Pararescue Airmen, the clinical investigation facility on Travis is testing the affects of Medihoney on wounds to be used in the future as a topical infectious control wound treatment to prevent infections on traumatic limb injuries.

"The Medihoney is essential to first responders who have been wounded by an IED explosion or enemy fire and need immediate medical attention, but do not have the accessibility of a medical facility," Maldonado said.

The Medihoney, which is honey, comes in individually wrapped packets of either a gel or patch form and is specialized for treating thickness burns.

The honey patch uses the osmotic process to heal wounds, said Damaris Tirado, 60th MDG in-house microbiologist. In this process, the sugary honey is able to pull debris, infection and bacteria out of the wound while also pulling the white blood cells forward. The white blood cells contribute to a faster healing process.

"We needed to come up with something that was easy and effective for frontline Airmen to use," Maldonado said. "The honey is perfect because it doesn't need an incubation time period, doesn't need to be refrigerated and it doesn't take a degree to operate it."

The honey is used in a similar manner to combat gauze on limb extremities. Prior to dressing the wound, the honey is packed in tightly and bandaged.

While Medihoney is simply honey, it's not any regular brand that can be found on a store shelf.

"The Medihoney is only produced from the Manuka honey tree," Tirado said. "That specific honey tree can only be found in New Zealand."

The discovery of the capability of this honey is a valuable alternative to super antibiotics to treat viruses, she said. Super antibiotics are costly, and the virus it treats usually just evolve to become unaffected by the antibiotic.

While the Medihoney product is still in the testing phase of experiments and not being handed out to combat Airmen just yet, Maldonado is confident in the findings so far.

"It's not just my opinion," he said. "It's the science that backs it up."

The idea for the honey resulted from a brain storming session when Tirado though up the concept.

"Sometimes the answer is simple," she said. "Sometimes you just have to go back to basics."