By USSOUTHCOM Public Affairs

MIAMI — Midway into their deployment to the Caribbean, Central and South America, USNS Comfort medical providers have conducted 178,137 consultations with 45,094 patients during humanitarian visits to six partner nations.

To date, Comfort’s medical and veterinarian staff has conducted 510 surgeries, 18,110 dental procedures, dispensed 53,022 pharmaceuticals, issued 10,735 eyeglasses and treated 6,467 animals.

The ship’s medical staff has also partnered with Project Hope – an international, nongovernmental heath organization – to conduct more than 700 training sessions for approximately 20,000 students, including preventive medicine training for patients and health procedures training for medical providers.

Biomedical technicians from the Comfort have conducted 287 repairs on medical equipment for local health care facilities; and Navy civil engineers, known as Seabees, have conducted more than a dozen construction and restoration projects at local schools and health care facilities during the deployment.

“Comfort’s achievements would not be possible without the collective efforts of the Department of Defense, Department of State, Homeland Security, Public Health Services, non-governmental organizations and countless partner nation health professionals that contribute to make this ongoing humanitarian effort a success,” said Col. Bill Costello, Director of Public Affairs at U.S. Southern Command. “This mission is an example of the positive results nations can achieve when working together to bring hope and relief to those less fortunate.”

USNS Comfort departed its home port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., June 15 on a humanitarian assistance mission to 12 nations and has completed visits to Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Peru. Comfort departs Salaverry, Peru today and is scheduled to visit Colombia, Haiti, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago before completing its deployment in October.