Troops 'spread superbug'

[IChing]

The Sunday Times October 08, 2006

Troops 'spread superbug'
Steven Swinford

WOUNDED troops returning from Iraq have been linked by government scientists to outbreaks of a deadly superbug in National Health Service hospitals.
Injured soldiers flown back to be treated on the NHS have been infected with a rare strain of Acinetobacter baumannii, a superbug resistant to antibiotics.

At one hospital in Birmingham in 2003 the bacteria went on to infect 93 people, 91 of whom were civilians. Thirty-five died, although the hospital has not been able to establish whether the superbug was a contributory factor.>>>>snip

The bacterium has become a concern in the US army, where it has been identified in more than 240 military personnel since 2003, killing five.>>>>snip


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2393815,00...

[hippiechick]

1. Stephen King's "The Stand" comes to mind ...

[gully]

2. Germ warfare?

nt

[lonestarnot]

3. Sounds like it.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Tinfoil? nt

[gully]

15. Cryptic?

nt

[Mr_Spock]

20. A neighborhood friend died from superbug here

Got a puncture wound on a construction site right here in the good ol' USA.

'Course we can be idiots about this...

[gully]

22. Well, I doubt those in your neighborhood are experiencing

"superbugs" to the degree our troops are?

We did fail to secure Saddams weapons cache and he did have chem/bio weapons that we supplied him with in the 1980's. I don't think I am the idiot here.

[Mr_Spock]

23. Perhaps if the critical part of the article was quoted!!!

Acinetobacter baumannii commonly inhabits soil and water and is associated with warmer climates such as the Middle East. It is resistant to most common antibiotics and, if left untreated, can lead to pneumonia, fever and septicemia.

It's common there! The real issue is bringing people back to the US and putting them next to non-military folk:

Dr Mark Enright, a reader in epidemiology at London’s Imperial College, said the superbug can spread rapidly in intensive care wards. It can also survive on dry surfaces for up to 20 days.

“The problem is that acinetobacter can spread like wildfire between patients. If you’ve got someone who has been evacuated from Iraq with multiple burns and acinetobacter, it would spread to patients in the same unit from the hands of nursing staff and doctors.”

The Ministry of Defence said it was negotiating with Selly Oak to create a military-only ward, and added that it had introduced “stringent isolation and infection control measures” that had helped limit infections among military personnel to two soldiers, both of whom survived.

Amazing what one can learn if they choose read the entire article!

[gully]

26. What's amazing is what one can learn when they look beyond a single

article for information. I suggest you do so.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gully]

30. When all else fails

insult someone and call THEM an infant.

I reacted because I have read more than one article, if you choose to deny the possibility I raised, feel free.

[NobleCynic]

32. Inappropriate

Suggest an article to look for or what be learned from such an article or you're just being childish.

[gully]

33. Let's see, I responded to a post where someone calls me an idiot,

then called me "childish" and "infantile" and I'm now being called "childish" again. I realize that some people here have a fan club, but I expect that most DU-ers will attempt to be fair before jumping into a conversation with an insult? If you can't be fair at least be original huh?

Might I suggest that those who call others names are the "childish/infantile/idiotic?"

As for the articles you would like - try google for STARTERS.

http://mediafilter.org/caq/Caq53.gws.html

http://www.all-natural.com/riley.html

The basic fact is that biological agents were used on our troops. Chemical agents were used on our troops. Germ warfare was used on our troops -- using biologicals that were made in the United States of America. It was made in Houston, Texas and Boca Raton, Florida. It was passed through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and through companies such as American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) in Maryland. It was passed to Saddam Hussein -- sold to Saddam Hussein, as late as 1989. Just prior to the war. The American government was involved in the provision of biological warfare (components) to Saddam Hussein. They knew exactly what they were doing. Our troops did not know what to expect, nor were they protected. We later found out that we had no adequate biological/chemical detection capability. The lies are going on and on. I released the story on my radio show on May 4, 1995 with Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicholson. We had security in the studio because I had made the mistake of sending out some news releases in advance. I was afraid that we would be stopped from doing the program. We had someone there to argue a temporary restraining order, if necessary. But, we didn't need it. Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicholson named names, places and times. The sad part is that it is real. When I heard them naming names and places, I thought "oh, my word. I'm going to have ten lawyers on my door tomorrow."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome#Infectio...

There are some who believe that Gulf War Syndrome is the result of a contagious bacteria. There are anecdotal reports of improvement in some victims when treated with antibiotics.

I am not stating that the issue in the OP IS due to germ warfare, but I do raise the possibility as it should be a consideration IMO.

[Mr_Spock]

34. I'm glad you're not stating that the issue in the O/P is due to germ warfa

I am really not fond of "guilt by association" or what I call "ergo" arguments.

Just because there are some people with theories WRT Gulf War Syndrome - something that was covered up & never fully flushed out, doesn't mean that this super-bacteria issue is related. They are being VERY specific about the cause of this issue which NEVER happened WRT Gulf War Syndrome. Saying there are anecdotal reports of improvement in GWS with antibiotics in no way links these two issues. This is why you were being criticised, because you have no basis for your statements, other than a feeling. Please do some more homework before you post theories like this or we all end up looking like alarmists on every issue. I really don't think this characteristic is at all helpful for our side and I actually consider it a flaw.

[gully]

40. Yes, and I trust the CDC/US Government to tell us the full truth!

As for being "glad" I'm not making a statement about AB being an iron clad connection to germ warfare, the question mark in my original post should have clued you in. "Germ warfare?"

Perhaps this will be of comfort to YOU? The USA has come out with an official denial that "AB" is not related to germ warfare thusly: "There is no evidence that Acinetobacter is being used as a biological warfare agent." Apparently I'm not the only one "speculating?" Now, you go ahead and believe that the official statement from this government is true. I, on the other hand, remain skeptical, for various reasons.

As for what YOU consider helpful or flawed, I don't personally give a shit.

[Mr_Spock]

50. Paranoia, big destroya

I can't stand these circular arguments.

[NobleCynic]

35. That helps

Now at least I understand where you're coming from.

[Irreverend IX]

52. Saying it's a bioweapon makes no sense.

If it is a bioweapon, it's a woefully ineffectual one since it's affected only a small number of people and the only observed cases so far have been in people who were already wounded. Why would insurgents deploy bioweapons at this point when it would have made more sense for Saddam to fire his biggest guns during the invasion? Bioweapons have a pretty short shelf-life, and I doubt anything Saddam purchased in the 80s would be remotely dangerous today.

[Megahurtz]

44. Yeah, give Bio-Warfare agents to another Country

and then go invade 'em claiming that they have Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Gotta' love this place! A Government to be trusted!

[JoFerret]

49. It's endemic in hospital settings

and deadly to those with weakened immune systems (i.e. the sick)

[MGD]

25. Doubtful. PDRAB has been around for a while as a nosocomial infection.

Pandrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Causing Nosocomial Infections in a University Hospital, Taiwan

The rapid emergence (from 0% before 1998 to 6.5% in 2000) of pandrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (PDRAB) was noted in a university hospital in Taiwan. To understand the epidemiology of these isolates, we studied 203 PDRAB isolates, taken from January 1999 to April 2000: 199 from 73 hospitalized patients treated at different clinical settings in the hospital and 4 from environmental sites in an intensive-care unit. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) generated by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction of these 203 isolates showed 10 closely related genotypes (10 clones). One (clone 5), belonging to pulsotype E and RAPD pattern 5, predominated (64 isolates, mostly from patients in intensive care). Increasing use of carbapenems and ciprofloxacin (selective pressure) as well as clonal dissemination might have contributed to the wide spread of PDRAB in this hospital.

More:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EiD/vol8no8/02-0014.htm

[gully]

28. "This organism was susceptible to most antibiotics in the 1970s."

This organism was susceptible to most antibiotics in the 1970s. It has now become a major cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide due to its remarkable propensity to rapidly acquire resistance determinants to a wide range of antibacterial agents.

http://genetics.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-...

http://www.umdnj.edu/umcweb/marketing_and_communication...

I am only speculating of course, but I bet we'll hear more on the possibility in the near future?

[geniph]

41. Most nosocomial infectious agents were susceptible to ABs

in the 1970s, and nearly all have developed some degree of resistance, due to overuse of ABs. You don't need to look any further than bacterial evolution and plasmids for the explanation - no black helicopters nor tinfoil need be involved.

[gully]

43. "plausible denial" - see here.

Using biological weapons under the cover of an endemic or natural disease occurrence provides an attacker the potential for plausible denial. In this context, biological weapons offers greater possibilities for use than do nuclear weapons.

Biological warfare can include the use of bacteria, rickettsia, viruses, and toxins to induce illness or death in humans, animals, and plants. In the current public opinion, there is a significant misperception that clouds BW discussions. Biological warfare is often lumped together with chemical weapons. In BW, the types of agents, physiologic effects, methods of protection and detection, and methods of application are distinctly different from those of chemical warfare (CW).

------

Detection of biological agents is a complex problem. Since World War II, attempts by the United States to develop BW detection have met with frustration and only limited success. Given the chemically indistinguishable organic properties of biological agents, the methodology for detecting chemical agents is not useful by itself. Each prospective BW agent requires a specific assay to detect and identify. Advances in medical diagnostics and biotechnology are allowing science to overcome these technical obstacles. The number of potential agents, however, and the demanding technical and developmental requirements make the challenge of BW detection daunting.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/battle...

No need for a tinfoil hat when a thinking cap will do.

[kestrel91316]

45. But, but .....I thought evolution was just phony BS invented to

turn us away from Jeebus and the Rapture!!!!

You mean bacteria evolve?????? Right before our eyes?????

[geniph]

51. I've always said, anyone who doubts evolution

needs to be limited to taking only first-generation antibiotics for any bacterial illness; since there is no evolution, there is no need for newer antibiotics. Penicillin and tetracycline still work on everything, since bacteria don't evolve.

[muryan]

53. Well technically its not evolving, its a mutation.

There's a subtle difference when using those two words in this context. Evolution does not happen instantaneously, which is what happens when a pathogen mutates. This all could be avoided if we had put more research into bacterial phages when we realized that antibiotics would not work forever. The russians hardly use antibiotics and as a result they have very few resistant strains of disease, one of the few things they got right.

[JoFerret]

48. No. GERMS on the warfare. Big difference

.

[NOLADEM]

4. The Superbug of DEMOCRACY !!!

[OhioChick]

5. Hmmmm, another one

Soldiers Returning From Iraq May Be at Risk for Q Fever

ELGIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Sept. 27 -- A few troops returning from Iraq are bringing home Q fever, a zoonotic disease caused by the rickettsial pathogen Coxiella burnetii, according to military physicians.

During the first Gulf War there only three cases of Q fever occurred among U.S. military forces, but there have been 10 cases among soldiers serving in the current war, the physicians reported in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Eight of those cases occurred in patients first diagnosed with pneumonia, wrote Major Patrick J. Danaher, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at the medical center here, and Charmaine Leung-Shea, M.D., of David Grant U.S. Air Force Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in California.

Q fever can range from a subclinical illness to an infection that becomes severe and chronic, or even fatal. It can appear as pneumonia or a cardiovascular or hepatic illness. It can lead to bone infections, or such neurological complications as encephalitis, aseptic meningitis, or dementia. The primary reservoir of Q fever is animals such as sheep, goats, and cattle.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/Pneumonia/tb/4183

[Monkeyman]

12. Thanks I posted that a few weeks ago

Remember Cheney's little company did some nasty things toi drinking water

[OhioChick]

19. Yes, I do.

I remember discussing this, but couldn't find it.

[IChing]

6. What is interesting is looking at this data

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualt...



"Of the 20,748 evacuated:
2,913 were wounded in battle.
5,876 had a non-battle injury.
11,959 had a disease. "

[BrotherBuzz]

7. Wow, this is the first I've seen or heard of those numbers

Decimating the forces on another front.

Note: those numbers Excludes all non-Army troops, and all troops treated in theater! Must be one hell of a bug.

[IChing]

9. Yes that a lot of disease

Although it doesn't breakdown the types of diseases.

[BrotherBuzz]

10. How many types of diseases can be treated in theater?

Point being, these 'unknown' diseases are serious enough to evacuate the soldiers from Iraq. I seem to remember when I was drafted into the 'mean green fighting machine' I was inoculated against a whole bunch of diseases, so we can rule those common ones out. I'm concerned that something serious is brewing that, although maybe not on the scale of the 1918 pandemic, may turn into something big.

[IChing]

11. Sometimes I think the inoculations can cause problems

Military Mute On Vaccine Danger?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2003

CBS) A half million U.S. soldiers were inoculated for the war with Iraq. Some of them got sick after their vaccinations. Whether the vaccines were to blame remains an open question because, as CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, the military may not be reporting all the cases properly.

When Army Reservist Rachael Lacy got her military shots last spring, she became deathly ill in a matter of weeks.

The coroner listed "recent smallpox and anthrax vaccination(s)" as contributors to her death.

Yet the military doesn't mention Lacy under "Noteworthy Adverse Events" in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association touting its smallpox vaccine success. It claims no deaths. >>>>snip

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/21/eveningnews/m...

[muryan]

54. Innoculations can cause major problems

as well as varying forms sickness. Theres a new flu season every year because it mutates. Im fairly certain that sickness present on the ground in iraq is not of the exact variety that was cultured in a lab in the US.

[Oak2004]

13. It's not a coincidence that the ancients talked of "wars and pestilence"

Wars have been traditionally associated with epidemics. Given that we're fighting in a region long war-torn whose diseases few Americans have exposure to and immunity from, it's not surprising that troops are getting sick, some dying, some bringing the illnesses home.

Reason #eight billion and one or so why war is a last resort to be undertaken out of desperation, not a cool game for older frat boys to play with other people's lives.

[Joanne98]

17. If that doesn't put a kink in recruiting, I don't know what will.

[NobleCynic]

31. Historically the most deaths from any war were from disease not violence

Here disease has caused a large proportion of the casualties, but not deaths. This is a testament to modern medicine, not an implication of something more sinister. In of itself there is nothing suspicious about this.

[dipsydoodle]

14. Probably MRSA

old news link : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2572841.stm

Once it's in a hospital it's difficult to get rid of.

[MGD]

24. No, they're two different bugs. This is pan drug-resistent

Acinetobacter baumannii (PDRAB). MRSA is methycillin resistent Staph. aurus. PDRAB has been loose since before the war. It first broke out in Taiwan in 1998. Before that it was Carbapene resistent Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) and had been isolated in a US hospital as early as 1991. It's exiistence is attributed to the overuse/innaprpriate use of certain antibiotics, namely ciprofloxacin and carapenem. Anyways, US personel probably carried it on their persons accidentaly from a foreign hospital to an in-theater hospital. War and pestilence have always been like peas and carrots. This in't surprising in the least.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EiD/vol8no8/02-0014.htm

[geniph]

42. They've been handing out Cipro like candy

so it's no great surprise that common bacteria have developed resistance to it.

[kestrel91316]

46. Dumba- - es:

"They've been handing out Cipro like candy......"

Looks like antibiotic misuse/abuse has reached its logical conclusion once again.


"When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?" - with apologies to Peter, Paul, and Mary or whoever sang that

[Joanne98]

16. The Freedom Bug!

Really, what a bummer!

[bvar22]

18. "91 of whom were civilians. Thirty-five died,"

38% Fatality Rate???!!!!!!!

That's some BUG!!!

[hedgehog]

39. I'd like to know whether it was patients or staff affected.

People don't stay in hospitals these days unless they are already very ill. Someone who doesn't wash their hands properly and then proceeds to care for another patient is in effect inoculating them via skin contact or even inhalation.

[bonito]

21. Silver ions n/t

[rainbow4321]

27. "236 cases in just two months"

Last article being the scariest.."monitored on a state level, ignored on the national level"...236 cases in 2 months.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5345a1.htm

During January 1, 2002--August 31, 2004, military health officials identified 102 patients with blood cultures that grew A. baumannii at military medical facilities treating service members injured in Afghanistan and the Iraq/Kuwait region.
All of these cases met the criteria for A. baumannii bloodstream infection on the basis of criteria established by CDC's National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) system (2). Of these 102 cases, 85 (83%) were associated with activities during OIF and OEF. Most of the infections were reported from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), Germany (33 patients: 32 OIF/OEF casualties, one non-OIF/OEF), and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), District of Columbia (45 patients: 29 OIF/OEF casualties, 16 non-OIF/OEF). In both facilities, the number of patients with A. baumannii bloodstream infections in 2003 and 2004 exceeded those reported in previous years (one case during 2000--2002 at LRMC; two cases during 2001--2002 at WRAMC).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinetobacter_baumannii

Species of the genus Acinetobacter, except some of the A. lwoffii strain, grow very well on MacConkey agar (without salt). Most Acinetobacters are infectious, and the strain A. baumannii is the most common nosocomial infection in health care centers and military medical facilities. A. baumannii can cause infections including skin and wound infections and pneumonia. It also causes meningitis, but A. lwoffi is mostly responsible for that. A. baumannii can live on human skin or dry surfaces for weeks

Since the start of the Iraq War, over 300 cases of A. baumannii had infected U.S. soldiers in the Middle East. At least five have died.

Ethanol has been found to stimulate the virulence of A. baumannii.<1> Tests on infected nematode worms dosed with ethanol found that the worms laid fewer eggs and their life spans were only 80% of worms infected with a non-ethanol responsive strain of A. baumannii, suggesting the common misconception that drinking alcohol kills infections is false and drinking alcohol may actually help the infection's spread

http://www.acinetobacter.org /


Early this year a outbreak of MDR Acinetobacter Baumannii swept over Arizona. 236 cases in just two months. It was reported by the state disease monitoring systems, but ignored on the national level.

Now dubbed "Supergerms", they spread without warning and seemingly without official notices since they are infections instead of diseases. A mere technicality that for some reason the government is taking advantage of in the military.

A nurse at Bethesda in Washington DC left with a lung infection. She went to a civilian hospital were it was learned this was Acinetobacter Baumannii. She succumbed to the infection quickly and with no fan fare. The story went silent.

In Brooks hospital in Texas a soldier fights for his life as his combat wounds are made worse by infections the doctors cant seem to handle. The only reason his story is known is the girl friend speaks for him since the staff want this quiet.

[Subdivisions]

36. Ummm...

"At one hospital in Birmingham in 2003 the bacteria went on to infect 93 people, 91 of whom were civilians. Thirty-five died, although the hospital has not been able to establish whether the superbug was a contributory factor."

When were they going to inform the general public about this? Is it contained or contagious?

[shadowknows69]

37. Well fuckity fuck me

I'm in close proximity in my cab with about 150 Vets a week. I don't even want to know the symptoms.

[4_TN_TITANS]

38. Allah's Revenge?

[muryan]

55. more like the inevitable sickness

that results in being in a foreign land, grouped together with people in close quarters for an extended amount of time. (war)

[HeeBGBz]

47. Just a day ago an online acquaintance

From another message board, died in her sleep after about a week of flu-like symptoms that medicines weren't helping. She was reportedly finally starting to feel a little better and she died in her sleep at age 18. I immediately thought of this thread and wondered if she had any contact with any soldiers from the Gulf.

[muryan]

56. Its possible

But scenarios like the one you described are hardly uncommon. Often times people have lessened symptoms for a short amount of time before going into septic shock.