Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Armed Forces of Cape Verde will review the issue of obesity and introduce new health tests when inspecting young people entering military service, a source from the Cape Verdean military institution told Lusa this Wednesday.
Case of recruit’s death: Cape Verde Armed Forces will introduce new tests in military inspection. The guarantee was given, in the city of Praia, by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (CEMFA), António Duarte Monteiro, at a press conference to reveal the causes of the death of a recruit Davidson da Silva Barros (see photo) two years ago weeks, with a silent illness that was not detected during inspection.
Another basic cause of death was obesity, level 1, with CEMFA stating that a new table with psychophysical tests is being worked on, in which the issue of obesity “could be reviewed”, adds the aforementioned source.
“ But, so far, class 1 obesity is not a requirement to be considered unfit ”, he explained, noting that there are other issues and diseases on the table, such as epilepsy and glycemia, for which treatment should begin. take tests right at the entrance to the Morro Branco Military Instruction center, in São Vicente.
“ It is normal that the world is changing and there are new pathologies that did not exist in the past. Certainly, we will promote, in the table that will come into use in due course, some adjustments in relation to what existed previously ”, he said.
António Duarte Monteiro warned that the idea is not to carry out inspections on all recruits, as it is a task that is not used anywhere, but rather on those who appear to have some pathology.
“ Inspections are carried out objectively and, if there is a need to carry out a more in-depth inspection of a specific recruit, as certain evidence is revealed, this is done”, he mentioned.
In addition to the medical panel, held in the municipalities of origin, Duarte Monteiro said, Lusa continues, that recruits are asked if they have any pathology, if they have a family history, among other questions, and, if there is nothing that could indicate that they have something, is considered suitable.
Recruit death case
The case of the death of the military recruit on the island of São Vicente led to the opening of three investigations, one of them at the Ministry of Defense, into training practices and procedures, and two at the Armed Forces, to verify the circumstances of the death.
According to information released at the time by the Ministry of Defense, the 20-year-old recruit “felt unwell during the final stage of an administrative march, and immediately received first aid from the military doctor and the rescuer who accompanied the said march ”.
The young man, who was from the town of Queimada Guincho, on the island of Fogo, was first treated in the infirmary of the Morro Branco Military Instruction Center, from where he was transferred to the emergency room of Hospital Batista de Sousa (HBS), in Mindelo.
Already under observation in that unit, “ despite a slight improvement, the condition was worrying ”, and he ended up dying on October 13th, after five respiratory arrests.
According to Lusa, this is not the first case of its kind, as in October 2019 a 21-year-old young man, from Praia, died after collapsing at the military training center in São Vicente.
At the time, the young man was treated at Baptista de Sousa Hospital, but his clinical condition would worsen, with sudden hypotension (low blood pressure), followed by respiratory arrest, one of which was irreversible, resulting in his death, which led the Armed Forces to open an investigation, concludes the source of this newspaper.
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