Posted on 06/19/2007 7:31:43 AM PDT by TexKat
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that an outbreak of wound and bloodstream infections among U.S. service members in Iraq was acquired at contaminated field hospitals, not on the battlefield.
Army doctors noticed an increasing problem of infection with a drug-resistant microbe called Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex (ABC) among casualties being treated in Iraq.
Acinetobacter bacteria are found in soil and water but usually cause no problem. In fact, it's quite common for people to carry the germ on their skin without any ill effects. However, with open wounds and reduced immunity there's an increased risk of ABC infections.
Dr. Paul Scott, from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues looked into ABC infections seen in wounded soldiers evacuated from Iraq, and examined three possible sources for infection.
Skin samples from 160 soldiers were tested for the presence of ABC bacteria. In addition, samples from the soil and from healthcare environments were also examined for evidence of the microbes.
Just one of the patients tested had evidence of ABC on the skin, the team reports in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, and only 1 of 49 soil samples carried the microbes. By contrast, ABC bacteria were present in samples obtained from all seven field hospitals studied.
Taken together, these findings suggest that drug-resistant ABC infection was not acquired in the battlefield, but only after the patients had been treated for wounds at field hospitals.
The results of a second study, which is reported in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, also point to contaminated field hospitals as being the source of these outbreaks.
"We need to know where these infections are coming from," Dr. Matthew E. Griffith said in a statement. "One of the possibilities was that ABC was on the soldiers' skin before injury and simply traveled to the wound site to cause the infection. "
The study involved skin testing of 102 active military soldiers stationed in Iraq.
Contrary to what had been expected, Griffith, from Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and colleagues found that uninjured soldiers in Iraq do not carry drug-resistant ABC on their skin.
If the organism was not present on the skin before injury, then it is likely to have come from some other source and entered the wound after injury, Dr. Griffith said. One likely source: field hospitals.
These findings add "to the ever growing body of evidence" implicating health care-related transmission as the cause of the ongoing military ABC outbreak.
SOURCES: Clinical Infectious Diseases, June 15, 2007; Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, May 16, 2007.
U.S. soldiers from 2nd Brigade,10th Mountain Division, and an Iraqi soldier (R) take part in a search operation for three missing soldiers in Rashdimullah district in Baghdad in this file photo from May 17, 2007. New research suggests that an outbreak of wound and bloodstream infections among U.S. service members in Iraq was acquired at contaminated field hospitals, not on the battlefield. (Stringer/Reuters)
Field hospitals source of infection in U.S. soldiers ping
Field hospitals source of infection in U.S. soldiers since the Revolutionary War. Really a problem during the Civil War. Probably the reason the Spanish Flu proliferated during WWI. Dear Reuters Health, this is tragic, but it is not news.
agreed.....this is a non-story beyond the fact that Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex exists in Iraq.
News reports such as this don’t deserve any bandwidth. This is crackpot material.
Here is the published paper....
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2007 January; 51(1): 376–378.
Published online 2006 October 16. doi: 10.1128/AAC.00858-06.
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology
Susceptibility of Acinetobacter Strains Isolated from Deployed U.S. Military Personnel
Joshua S. Hawley,1 Clinton K. Murray,1* Matthew E. Griffith,1 M. Leticia McElmeel,2 Letitia C. Fulcher,2 Duane R. Hospenthal,1 and James H. Jorgensen2
Department of Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston,1
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas2
*Corresponding author. Mailing address: Infectious Disease Service (MCHE-MDI-7E), Brooke Army Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Dr., Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234. Phone: (210) 916-4355. Fax: (210) 916-0388. E-mail: Clinton.Murray@amedd.army.mil.
Received July 13, 2006; Revised September 10, 2006; Accepted October 10, 2006.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1797659
The U.S. military has noted an increase in the number of Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex (ABC) infections among military personnel injured while deployed to Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF]) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF]) (1). ABC is noted for highly resistant isolates that limit therapeutic options (10). In this study, we determined the susceptibilities of a collection of ABC isolates, recovered primarily from U.S. military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, to several antimicrobial agents of potential interest.
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Its about the resistance of the organism, NOT the field hospitals sterile technique as the military-bashing “news” article pretends.
It is impossible to maintain a sterile environment in the field.
To some and to some not.
Thank you Vn_survivor_67-68.
The military imported this particular strain of Acinetobacter Baumannii into the field hospitls when it shipped it’s medical equipment in from Germany. They determined that three years ago. Epidemiological Consultation 12-HA-01JK-04) has never been made public.
They could have contained this dangerous bacteria but put more effort into covering it up.
It has spread throughout the military medical system, the VA medical system, our community hospitals all over our country, the UK, Australia..... the coalition of the contaminated.
Thanks for posting the story.
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