Re: acinetobacter baumannii - wonder if they have a test for this?

[Guest guest]

So is it possible that once again it will take the military to develop/fund a solution from which we will eventually benefit? I just wasn't aware that they were that concerned about their soldiers, but perhaps with the short supply...Go ARMY! I just wonder how long it will take for our own medical communities to realize that antibiotic resistant pathogens are the real threat to health, and the longer we wait to wage our own war, the more disastrous the results will be? pennypjeanneus <pj7@...> wrote: The Invisible Enemy in Iraqhttp://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,72532-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1...Since OPERATION Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, more than 700 US soldiers have been infected or colonized with Acinetobacter baumannii. A significant number of additional cases have been found in the Canadian and British armed forces, and among wounded Iraqi civilians. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has recorded seven deaths caused by the bacteria in US hospitals along the evacuation chain. Four were unlucky civilians who picked up the bug at Walter Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, while undergoing treatment for other life-threatening conditions. Another was a 63-year-old woman, also chronically ill, who shared a ward at Landstuhl

with infected coalition troops.Behind the scenes, the spread of a pathogen that targets wounded GIs has triggered broad reforms in both combat medical care and the Pentagon's networks for tracking bacterial threats within the ranks. Interviews with current and former military physicians, recent articles in medical journals, and internal reports reveal that the Department of Defense has been waging a secret war within the larger mission in Iraq and Afghanistan - a war against antibiotic-resistant pathogens. ...