Reply #1: Nasty shit, that

[MADem]

The three cases aboard the Comfort were the first of a stubborn outbreak that has since spread to at least five other American military hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and the Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. ...How the bacteria became entrenched in the field hospitals is still unknown. But, in many ways, it is irrelevant. It is there, and, as civilian hospitals have found, it is not going away easily.

For the most part, doctors have figured out the most effective drugs against the bacterium – an antibiotic called imipenem and an older class of drugs known as polymyxins.

The drugs have made the infections fairly manageable. Through stricter controls, such as monitored hand-washing, infections rates have begun to show signs of dropping in some hospitals.

Dr. Petersen, who worked at National Naval Medical Center in Maryland after the Comfort's mission ended, treated just one or two cases of Acinetobacter infections in July, a dramatic decline from the highs of 15 to 20 a month in 2004 and 2005. So far this year, there have been less than a handful of cases each month, according to hospital figures.

Acinetobacter, it turns out, might only be a marker of vulnerability. "It is not the worst bug," Dr. Murray said.

Recently, scientists have noted signs that Acinetobacter strains are growing resistant to polymyxins and imipenem.