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Acinetobacter

by rcs1

Is anyone following this bit of information?

I had heard bits and pieces awhile ago than nothing, apparently I've been missing a few little tidbits of propaganda and coverup.

My first thoughts, awhile back, were "What are they trying to say, that some shit on a bomb will have lasting bacterial traces after explosion?"

It sounded so rediculus I figured that was why I hadn't heard much more about it, though I hadn't thought that some Supper Germ, i.e. WMD, had been unleashed by the Pentagon's Military Care Facilities, and that more had been suffering and dying from this potential Supper Germ, too much else going on, so it easily slipped under the radar.

Now, Bacteria on Shit, on an IED Survives an Explosion and Resulting Fire!!!
Radiation in Depleted Uranium Doesn't Survive in any Explosion and Fire!!!

Got That!!


commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!
Marcie, I removed her last name, sent this to Thomas at the G.I. Special Newsletter and he posted it in this current issue: Volume: 5E Issue: 14 Acinetobacter Kills  PDF . I took her URLs and found the titles of the reports and the transcripts. What she sent and Thomas posted is found below:

"Hospital Staff And Patients In The U.S. Are Dying"

"A Misinformation Campaign By The Pentagon Regarding The Infection Problems In The Military Medical System"

"They Have Failed To Reduce The Infection Rate In Their Own Medical System; In Fact It Is Going Up"

From: Marcie
To: GI Special
Sent: May 12, 2007
Subject: Misinformation Campaign

MORE ON ACINETOBACTER

This past week was apparently the beginning of a misinformation campaign by the Pentagon regarding the infection problems in the military medical system.
In several news articles and twice on CNN in interviews the Pentagon has implied that the insurgents are smearing animal feces on the IED's and that is where the bacteria is coming from.
This has gone unchallenged by the MSM.
In fact the MSM never picked up on Steve Silbermans expose in January which you posted.
Wired Magazine sent a hard copy to every member of Congress, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and more. The Invisible Enemy

All chose to ignore this.
I almost choked when I caught the CNN segments on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning but nearly cried when I heard Bill Maher repeat this lie last night.

Anyone in the military or anyone who is even thinking at all realizes that biologics cannot withstand the heat generated by even a small bomb. Disbursement methods for biologics are much more complicated and use very small explosive charges.

The military has already proven to themselves that they are origin and the cause of the spread of Acinetobacter Baummanni.

Their failure to contain it despite this knowledge has lead to the spread of this superbug to hospitals all over our country.

They have failed to reduce the infection rate in their own medical system, in fact it is going up.
Hospital staff and patients in the US are dying from this
I never dreamed 4 years ago that things would get this bad.
Here are links to the news articles and CNN Transcripts.
This information is also available at my new website The Iraq Infections
The Irresponsibility Did Not Begin at Walter Reed

Resilient infections worry military doctors
Researchers to study high rate of infection in soldiers wounded in wars.

Targeting tough bacteria
Troops suffer drug-resistant infections.

Thanks for doing the GI Special
Marcie

Transcripts from two shows:

THE SITUATION ROOM, MAY 8, 2007

THE SITUATION ROOM

Bombs, some laced with poison, are taking a huge toll among U.S. troops long after the explosions and far from the battlefield. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, military doctors have a new worry about badly wounded troops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: (voice-over): Hundreds of wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing a growing threat -- dangerous and sometimes deadly infections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing more of it now than we did at the beginning of the war.
STARR: As body armor improves, more troops are surviving the massive injuries caused by IEDs. But those wounds are becoming a breeding ground for drug-resistant infections. Researchers say the infections are often so bad troops may require more surgery or, in some cases, even amputation of arms or legs.
COL. GLENN WORTMANN, WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: Because they're surviving with these tremendous wounds that allows an environment for these bacteria to flourish. And, therefore, I think our infections are worse than you would see on the civilian side.
STARR: Infections in hospitals are nothing new, but one of the bacteria now showing up, acinetobacter, is resistant to almost all antibiotics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you here between 15 and about 20 percent of patients that come in the door are colonized or infected with the organism.
STARR: Researchers also say some infections occur because of natural bacteria in the soil. Wounds are contaminated when there is an IED attack.
There are also cases where IEDs have been deliberately filled with chemicals and animal waste, a deadly mix for open wounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMERICAN MORNING, MAY 9, 2007

AMERICAN MORNING

ROBERTS:
I'm just thinking about these stories out yesterday about these EFPs and other improvised-explosive devices, where insurgents and terrorists and now coating them with animal excrement and other bits of awful to try to inflict, you know, greater casualties by, you know, creating these wounds that just will not heal and become resistant to antibiotics.
CALDWELL: John, we continue to see them use any kind of tactic they can -- will, you know, inflict more casualties and cause more fear and intimidation amongst the people and the security forces, just like they do with these chlorine tanks that they put on top of their bombs, so they have a chlorine fume that is caused. I mean, it just shows you the type of nature the enemy we're fighting against over here and what we're up -- having to deal with.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, General Caldwell, it's another troubling development there. And we thank you for your time. We know your busy. And good luck today at the briefing today and with the vice president's visit.

Now just One More Time, Bacteria on Shit, on an IED, Survives an Explosion and Resulting Fire!!!
Radiation in Depleted Uranium Doesn't Survive in any Explosion and Fire!!!

Got That!!

Display:
that will catch my eye because it's the name of a bacterial genus.  You've committed a first here, thanks for surprising me!

I've not had a chance to review much of what you've presented, yet.  Tonight ain't the night either.  

But one thing I've done in a quick scan of some other literature is suggestive.  Any established civilian center for treatment of infectious diseases or ill people in general has become a collection place for organisms responsible for 'nosocomial' or hospital-acquired infection.  it only makes sense but it's a bad news thing because those bugs have typically gotten there or remain after years of killing off their siblings who couldn't handle the drugs that left the stronger ones behind who could.  

Drug-resistant infectious bacteria are a tough thing in civvy circumstances, they've gotta be a real tough thing in permanent or semi-premanent combat-related treatment centers.  Acinetobacter appears to be one of these up-and-comers.  

I'll try to come back to this issue but from a 2004 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from CDC, if it's not too much greek for you, read the editorial note of this volume:

Acinetobacter baumannii Infections Among Patients at Military Medical Facilities Treating Injured U.S. Service Members, 2002--2004

[...] In a recent national survey of hospital laboratories, A. baumannii infections accounted for only 1.3% of health-care--associated bloodstream infections (4). However, the findings in this report indicate an increase in the number of reported A. baumannii bloodstream infections in patients at military medical facilities in which service members injured in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan are treated.

The sources of the A. baumannii that led to the infections described in this report are under investigation. During the Vietnam War, A. baumannii was reported to be the most common gram-negative bacillus recovered from traumatic injuries to extremities, and more recent reports have identified A. baumannii infections in patients who suffered traumatic injuries, suggesting environmental contamination of wounds as a potential source (5--8). Although some of the patients identified in this report had evidence of bloodstream infections at the time of admission to military medical facilities, whether the infections were acquired from environmental sources in the field or during treatment at (or evacuation from) other military medical facilities (e.g., field hospitals) is unknown. Information on patients described in this report is being reviewed to examine potential risk factors for A. baumannii bloodstream infection. [...]


And here're a bunch more hits at CDC (I've not yet had the chance to review any of these, scanned only the one above): google for  site:www.cdc.gov Acinetobacter Baumannii.

If what you've posted still makes sense in light of later CDC reporting, then if you can find me any data on the thermal and pressure related dyanmics at the surface of explosives, I can provide some help interpreting the likelihoods of your posting above.  

The fact that these bugs come out of natural environments suggests they may be tougher critters than those adapted to the niches of human body cavities.  

If it's at all possible that temperatures of shrapnel fragment surfaces (especially of lower-powered IEDs) don't exceed certain limits, it maybe that there's validity to the nastiness your posted articles point to.  

I don't know.  

Let me know what you find if it makes sense to chase further in light of some of the suggested reading.


by luaptifer on Sun May 13, 2007 at 11:31:09 PM EST

If the numbers are increasing, and it's because of the heat and structure of the IEDs, that's an interesting piece of news as well as a health situation for our Vets and medical staff.

by kfred on Mon May 14, 2007 at 06:57:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Luaptifer,

Any chance you could look into this further and maybe write up a commentary on it? I wonder if there's any evidence among Iraq's civilian population as well.

by susie dow on Tue May 15, 2007 at 02:14:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

be pertinent to what happens physically during the process of explosion of conventional munitions, at least, but more ideally and much less likely, whether there's comparable work with IED's (there's going to be a huge range of dynamics profiles for these, if ever studied) it would help move things.  

Maybe Jeff Huber knows of resources that do these sorts of studies that would document any/all of:


  • materials,

  • temperatures,

  • pressure,

  • water conditions, and

  • possible effects of combustion products and/or

  • heavy metals and

  • other toxics,


it'd be very useful.  

If there is work that follows exploded fragments into their ultimate intended destinations (read the watery environment of human flesh or likely pig flesh in animal studies) that would be even more helpful.

Finally, I'd have to assume that any obsever trained in microbiology would have already used standard practices to test for the presence of the typical organisms normal to animal (and human) feces.  If these bugs are also found in flesh wounded by the sorts of explosives we're talking about, here, it'd be at least strongly presumptive that feces are involved (possibly from punctured guts).  

Multiple-drug resistance increases likelihood that prior human or animal exposure is involved and that nosocomial or fecal sources are involved.

Again, Acinetobacter is a normal isolate of soil and water environments.  If it IS a tougher bug than normal fecal contaiminants, as I'd expect, its presence in wounded flesh might be due to after the fact environmental contamination OR by shrapnel that's bearing feces.  Understanding the physical effects of explosion on the materials involved would make educated guessing an easier prospect.

I'll send a note to Jeff, anyone else please chime in.


by luaptifer on Tue May 15, 2007 at 09:20:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

one of the ScienceBlog blogs has posted about this occasionally too.

This is from a post from January

What's novel is the frequency with which this bacterium is infecting (and killing) soldiers and civilians in Iraq (due largely to the evolution of resistance to multiple antibiotics), and the sheer magnitude of its presence in medical facilities there


by jeninRI on Tue May 15, 2007 at 06:01:15 PM EST

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