Posted on 05/25/2008 5:11:00 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
BROWNSVILLE - The origin of drug-resistant bacteria's recent outbreak at Cameron County hospitals is stumping health officials.
Similar outbreaks of the opportunistic Acinetobacter baumannii have been possibly linked to war veterans.
But Dr. Brian Smith of the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday that the source of the local AB outbreaks was still unknown. And while U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies suggests the bacteria could be linked to war veterans, there is no evidence that the local outbreak could have originated from a military veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Smith said.
In an article published in March by Drs. L. Silvia Muñoz-Price and Robert A. Weinstein in the New England Journal of Medicine, it is noted that AB infections have long been prominent in tropical countries, have been a recurrent problem during wars and natural disasters and have recently caused multi-hospital outbreaks in temperate climates.
AB causes a variety of diseases, ranging from pneumonia to serious blood or wound infections, according to the CDC. It may also "colonize" or live in a patient without causing infection or symptoms, typically occurring in very ill patients and either causing or contributing to death.
It can live on the skin and may survive in the environment for several days. Careful attention to infection control procedures such as keeping hands and common areas clean can reduce risk of transmission, CDC reported.
"Most alarming are the organism's ability to accumulate diverse mechanisms of resistance, the emergence of strains that are resistant to all commercially available antibiotics, and the lack of new antimicrobial agents in development," the New England article stated.
In November 2004, the CDC reported on AB infections at military medical facilities that treated service members from 2002 through 2004. Those patients were injured during Operation Iraqi...
(Excerpt) Read more at themonitor.com ...
Could it be that some of them ‘undocumented’ “workers” brought it up with them?
I don’t think you should be replying to my posts until this is cleared up...
I’m thinking what others are- illegal aliens brought it.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.