Posted on 12/26/2010 12:01:32 PM PST by neverdem
Study of Haiti earthquake victims shows most wounds infected with Gram-negative, not Gram-positive, bacteria.
Guidelines for medical teams responding to catastrophes such as the Haiti earthquake may be causing doctors to miss a crucial set of deadly bacteria.
According to an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) rapid-response team, a large proportion of the wounds treated at their field hospital in Haiti were infected with Gram-negative pathogens. These bacteria are largely ignored in current recommendations on drug treatment for disaster victims.
Staining with the dye crystal violet is widely used to differentiate bacteria into two types — Gram-positive and Gram-negative — in a procedure developed in the nineteenth century by Hans Christian Gram. Crucially, drugs that are effective against one type of bacteria may not work against the other.
Guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, recommend treating injured patients with antimicrobials that target Gram-positive bacteria, as these strains are the most common cause of wound infections. But what is the case in hospitals in the West doesn't necessarily hold for the extreme conditions following a disaster.
"Skin and soft-tissue injuries are usually associated with Gram-positive pathogens and thus the previous guidelines seemed reasonable," says Ian Miskin, a doctor with the Clalit Health Services organization based in Jerusalem, and who was part of the rapid-response team. "However, after lying in the rubble for hours to days after an earthquake it appears that the pathogens causing wound infections were Gram-negative — possibly due to wound contamination with fecal material."
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January, the IDF set up a 72-bed mobile hospital. Over ten days the hospital admitted 737 victims of the disaster.
Miskin's team set up an on-site microbiology laboratory which...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Antimicrobial Therapy for Wound Infections after Catastrophic Earthquakes
E coli, dysentery, and now fecal infected wounds.
These people don’t need relief aid, they need to learn how to dig a latrine, boil water, and use soap. This is what happens when you have large percentages of a population dependent on the state for basic necessities.
Need to use some of that magic dust on Lindsey.
Incredible.
Where these doctors, Witch Doctors, hired for the season?
Haven’t you heard? Lady Lindsey is bi.
These people don’t need relief aid, they need to learn how to dig a latrine, boil water, and use soap. This is what happens when you have large percentages of a population dependent on the state for basic necessities.
................................
No kidding.
I watched some of Sarah Palin in Haiti. All that rubble and it looked like not one shovel full has been moved.
The population totally dependent on handouts .
Can”t they make an effort to clean up?
Do you not recall hurricane Katrina? Vegetables sitting on door stoops with their thumbs up their asses, waiting for whitey to come and make it all better? Same culture--mongrelized culturally collapsed French-African degenerates.
How soon we forget.
The gov of Haiti does not provide basic necessities to its citizens. Some relief efforts since the earthquake are suppporting large numbers of people in the Port au Prince area. What the government also does not do is provide clean water and sewage services.
Figured this has to be about those jokers at East Anglia.
:’)
Thanks neverdem.
these people must’ve been getting something from someone or they wouldn’t be clumping up huddled together in fecal infested hell holes. If their government never provided them with basic necessities, then this situation shouldn’t be a problem for them. IT’s been a year now and still all we hear is how horrible it is. If they don’t get going soon they are gonna have another event before they even recover from this one.
I remember.
Told my wife while watching the Palin-Haiti show that it reminded me of feeding deer in the winter. Pretty soon they just stand around waiting for the next handout. Not foraging for themselves.
I admire Franklin Graham and others for their service but there has to be a way to incorporate the assistance with cleaning up the country.
Although I believe Graham's primary focus is on the children.
Organize work crews, give them shovels, wheel barrows, take them to the rubble, provide lunch.
Wound clensing doesn’t require drugs, and the available drugs are dismally less effective than common sugar, and honey.
The medical buffoonery gets tiresome.
You don’t get the situation in Haiti. This is a country with nothing, no infrastructure, no resources, no raw materials, nothing, nada, zip. Before the quake there was nothing. Now there is less.
These are the most industrious people I have ever met and I have spent some years in Haiti. They slave 14-16 hrs a day for food and shelter, doing whatever they can imagine.
We live in the most comfortable country in the world. Imagine no food, persistent sickness, no shelter, rags for clothing, no transportation, no clean water, and fat grumpy Americans telling you to get off your dead a##.
Now chill out and pay attention.
after the crickets...
I neglected to mention the biggest obstacle to improving Haiti is official corruption. The entire government, the entire business sector and the people themselves are steeped in corruption.
Clinton has done a heroic job of supporting official government corruption. He set up Aristide with enough money to buy the largest estate in the Caribbean. Gave him a personal check for about 15 million to rebuild the power grid. LOL The grid is worse today than it was 25 yrs ago.
A few families own all importation of oil, construction materials (none exist in Haiti), clothing (minus Goodwill containers) and food. These privileged folk live on the mountain side above Petionville in massive walled estates. They are among the wealthiest class in the Caribbean.
It does not end there. The pervasive ethic in Haiti is to get over on anyone and everyone. Families members cheat each other. There is generosity but it is calculated. Starving children are sold by parents or guardians as house slaves.
Missionaries are no better. They are of 2 distinct groups. The first are the traditionalists who maintain grand estates with servants. Their work load is minimal, predicated upon swindling state side parishoners out of donations. They produce grand sounding reports of service to the locals based on a few hours of effort a year.
The second group makes Jesus proud. These blessed Christians become totally immersed in the culture of Haiti and bring the message of salvation to spiritually starving people. They are from many countries, especially the US and South Korea and are a genuine blessing.
Just had to get that off my heart. Thanks for listening... chirp chirp.
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