University of Maryland Acinetobacter baumannii Outbreak

Still promoting the myth that only sick people get this.

Deadly Infection in Baltimore Hospital
http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ee16947b-ec2f-447d-abac-e909032e73b4&rss=702

Three patients from a Baltimore hospital are dead – after becoming infected with deadly, drug-resistant bacteria.

On January 4th, officials at the University of Maryland Medical Center discovered that the three patients had been infected with “Acinetobacter baumannii.” It is not clear whether the patients actually died from that infection; hospital officials say all three patients were already very ill, and had been hospitalized for several weeks.

Still, the hospital is taking serious precautions. “Unfortunately, this organism -- and other organisms -- appear in many hospitals in Baltimore and beyond on an ongoing basis. That is why we have a proactive and comprehensive infection control and surveillance system in place,” said Ellen Beth Levitt, a spokeswoman for the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Four other patients identified as having the organism are still being cared for in the unit and are in stable condition, Levitt said. They have been separated from other patients and they are being treated by a team with strict contact precautions in force, including the use of gloves and gowns, frequent hand washing and frequent disinfection of medical equipment and facilities. No new patients are being admitted to that unit for the time being, she said.

Acinetobacter baumannii is best-known for affecting military personnel who have been serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The bacteria can live on surfaces like countertops, medical equipment and even cell phones for up to 12 days. Most strains are difficult to treat, because they are not affected by common antibiotics. However, the infection poses little risk to healthy people. It can cause a variety of illnesses, ranging from pneumonia to serious blood or wound infections. Acinetobacter may also colonize or grow in a patient without causing infection or symptoms.

Spirtual Intervention Needed

Nick Narron is the Jewish Hospital in Louisville Kentucky where he has been fighting dual infections of MRSA and Acinetobacter Baumannii. These are both hospital aquired infections.
He has had ups and downs and is currently fighting for his life.
Please send your prayers, thoughts, energies , everything you've got his way.

Welcome to the Iraq Infections

In the lead up to the Iraq War the US Government took plenty of time to propagate the lies it needed to justify the war and to award no bid contracts but the potential needs of the troops was never adequately addressed. When these inadequacies became apparent the Government put more effort into covering them up than they did into providing our troops with what they needed to fight this war or to survive this war.
Inadequately preparing for the casualties of this war has enabled the bacteria Acinetobacter Baumannii and others to become extremely to completely drug resistant and has spread these bugs throughout the military health sytem, the VA health system, and on to civilian hospitals all across our country. The UK, Australia, and the other Coalition Countries are suffering from the same. The third world wounded contractors are carrying these bacteria with them to their home countries.
The CDC warned the DoD about Leishmaniasis in December of 2002. Due to the time of year we were invading, sandfly's, and thus leishmaniasis was to be much more prevelant than in the first gulf war. Despite this troops were sent into war without proper precautions in place to prevent sandfly bites. Civilian contractors were not warned at all until many of them became infected. Many contractors are still not warned even today. Many are just now figuring out that they have it after being home for months and/or years.
This blog is here to share information about these infectious diseases and hospital aquired infections in general. Please feel free to post your questions under this entry. I will start a new entry for each category of questions. Email me junglem@yahoo.com if you would like to post an entry.
My website, The Iraq Infections http://www.iraqinfections.org/ is a good starting point for information about Acinetobacter Baumannii and Leishmaniasis from Iraq and Afghanistan.