Pediatric team brings nutritional care to children in rural Honduras Published June 18, 2009 By Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- Members of the 59th Medical Wing Pediatric Residency Program participated in a medical readiness training exercise, or MEDRETE, recently in rural Honduras where they provided care to underprivileged children. "The mission of these exercises is to provide nutritional assessments of children from 6 months to 5 years of age," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Vinod Gidvani, chief of pediatric hematology-oncology care at Wilford Hall Medical Center. Dr. Gidvani leads MEDRETEs every four months for two weeks at a time. All pediatric residents are required to do this trip once during their residency. MEDRETE is sponsored by Southern Command and conducts more than 60 trips annually, treating more than 200,000 people. "We saw close to 1,000 patients this trip," Dr. Gidvani said. "We were very well received and are supported by the Honduras Ministry of Health." The pediatric team visits a different rural area every MEDRETE. In addition to Wilford Hall Air Force personnel, Navy, Marine Corps and Army members from the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va.; Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas; and civilian dietitians and nutritional science students in the San Antonio area participate in these exercises. The May Honduras team worked 12 to 13 hours each day, helping as many children as they could. "It went great," said Army Capt. Latanya Agurs, a pediatric resident. "We normally worked from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. We saw a lot of people in need of multivitamins and there was good participation in checking for lead and zinc in children. It would be fun to do this again."