Acinetobacter Baumannii in Iraq

Coming to a hospital near you!

Multiple, Extremely and Completely Drug Resistant
Acinetobacter baumannii
Brownsville Texas Acinetobacter patient dies June 30th
Blood bank worker diagnosed with Ab July 12th

The Iraqibacter
A relatively benign bug becomes a highly lethal pathogen,
known to U.S. soldiers as Iraqibacter.
Watch the Nova Science segment aired on PBS July 9, 2008       HERE
Please note that the segment starts out promoting the notion that soldiers are
picking up the bug on the streets of Iraq. Maybe that sounds more interesting
than they are being given the Acinetobacter baumannii in the military
evacuation and/or health systems, but the continued promotion of this lie
does nothing to help the wounded who must deal with this.

bacteria, bacterium, bacterial infections, infectious disease

Also Known As: MDRAb, MDRAbc, Iraqibacter, Iraqi bacter,
A baumannii, T strain, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Ab, Abc, Aca,
baumannii, baumanii, baumanni, baumani

Not all Acinetobacter baumannii is from the military evacuation system
from Iraq but much of it is. Ask to have the strain identified.
This will be very important if you need to litigate.

Acinetobacter baumannii can cause pnuemonia, urinary tract
infections, sepsis, meningitis, trach site infections, wound infections, skin
infections, picc line infections.....

Acinetobacter baumannii is an organism that causes nosocomial
infections. It is not from the soil in Iraq, it is not from "insurgents" putting
bombs in dead animals or putting animal feces on IED's, it is from the filth in
the hospital systems.

Acinetobacter baumannii can kill you.

Acinetobacter baumannii is contagious.
You do not have to be the sickest of the sick, the weakest of the weak, or
immunocomprised to become infected though it does increase the chances.

To report cases of Acinetobacter infections or check the list of
infected civilian hospitals please go to our mapping page
Mapping the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii to civilian hospitals

June 8
TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury and Acinetobacter baumannii
Has the use of large doses of neurotoxic drugs to treat Acinetobacter baumannii
had an impact on the healing and recovery of TBI Traumatic Brain Injury patients?

June 2, 2008 6:30 pm
Senator Robert C Byrd, D-WV, longest serving Senator in American history,
back in hospital with fever. Sen Byrd picked up an urinary tract infection at
Walter Reed in February and had to be readmitted a few days later.   His home
health care nurse was worried about his lethargy and fever this evening. This
is how it happens with Acinetobacter baumannii though it could be one of the
other drug resistant infections running rampant at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center.

May 18, 2008
Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield dies of infection in Cleveland hospital
He makes it home alive from Iraq on leave, survives a point blank shooting,
only to die of an infection in the hospital. Cleveland and most of Ohio is
extremely contaminated with Acinetobacter baumannii.

May 16, 2008
Senator Bill Nelson, Florida, can't be bothered with little things like
Acinetobacter baumannii outbreaks in his state or the rest of the country. After
begging for help from him many times over the last four years this is the response I
get:

Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you need to send another message to
Senator Nelson, please use the form on his Web site:
http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm#email

Dear Mrs. Hascall Clark:

Thank you for contacting me regarding Acinetobacter baumannii infections. I
appreciate your taking the time to be involved and informed about matters
important to Florida and our nation.

Please know that I will keep your views in mind if this issue is considered
before the Senate. If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact me in the future.

It's not rape, it may not get you any press Mr. Nelson, but it is killing innocent
people and you just don't care.

May 11, 2008

Injured US Troops Battle Drug Resistant Bacteria
NPR Weekend Edition Sunday
Marine Sgt. David Emery was manning a checkpoint outside Haditha, Iraq, in early
2007 when he was seriously injured in an attack by a suicide bomber.
The 22-year-old Pennsylvanian lost both of his legs, not just because of the blast,
but also because of a subsequent infection by the highly drug-resistant bacteria
Acinetobacter baumannii.
There is one major untruth in this story. Wortmann says they don't know where the
Acinetobacter came from and that it may have been in the old Iraqi hospitals that
they used. These Acinetobacter baumannii genotypes have been identified and
they know exactly where they came from. While there may have been Acinetobacter
baumannii strains in the old Iraqi hospitals the problem remains with the military
health system, their empowerment and spread of the bug.    Listen here

Hospital bug killed 18 Doce de Octubre patients
Bosses at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid have admitted that the deaths of 18
out of 252 patients infected by the Acinetobacter Baumannii bacteria since February
2006 were as a direct result. In total, 101 of the 252 affected patients have since
died, and, in the majority cases, the infection was found to have been a contributory
factor.
The outbreak of the multi-drug resistant bacteria has taken twenty months to
contain and has forced the demolition of the old intensive care unit, from where it
had proven impossible to eradicate, read story here
Deadly Bacteria kills 18 at Major Madrid Hospital
Drug Resistant Bacteria kills 18 in Spanish Hospital

May 8, 2008
Superbug scare hits Coventry Universities Hospital
COVENTRY'S University Hospital has been hit by a new superbug scare. A ward had
to be closed because of the bug, thought to be carried by soldiers returning from
war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Staff at the hospital in Walsgrave identified
three patients with the bacterium acinetobacter baumannii known as MRAB.
full story here

May 6, 2008
Southern (Australia) man struck by superbug
A SOUTHERN man has contracted a deadly superbug linked to wounded troops
returning from the Iraq War.
Alan Fehlberg, 65, picked up the bacterial infection, which is extremely rare in
South Australia, while on holiday in Egypt.
He is fighting for his life in Flinders Medical Centre after spending the past three
months in intensive care units in Cairo, Paris and Singapore.
story here

April 29
Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville Texas reports 19
cases of Acinetobacter baumannii
This is a very large reported outbreak for one hospital.
We have been warning of an outbreak in this area.
McAllen, Alamo, Weslaco, Harlingen, San Benito, Olmito
Read the worst story full of misinformation yet here

April 16, 2008
Milwaukee VA Hospital says MDRAb NO BIG DEAL it happens
here all the time !!
A patient goes into the Milwaukee Wisconsin Veterans Administration hospital
where he gets pnuemonia which is later identified or at least the family is later told
that it is an Acinetobacter baumannii infection. His kidneys have shut down, he has
sepsis, and the antibiotics aren't working.

The family is told not to worry it's no big deal, it happens there all the time.....

April 10
Soldiers blamed for deadly superbug
by   Michele Paduano BBC
Eight patients died from a superbug after a new strain was introduced to a hospital
where soldiers injured in Iraq are treated, a freedom of information request by the
BBC has revealed.   read story here

The bug is resistant to virtually all known antibiotics
Watch Video here

April 2, 2008
Pandemic fear over resistant superbug
Doctors have warned that if a superbug which is known to be even
more resistant to antibiotics than clostridium difficile and MRSA
takes hold in hospitals, the country could face a pandemic.

The acinetobacter bug is being treated with older antibiotics because
newer ones do not work. There are fears that injured soldiers
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have passed the infection on in
civilian hospitals.

Prof Matthew Falagas, an expert in hospital-acquired infections, said:
"In some cases, we have simply run out of treatments and we could
be facing a pandemic with public health implications." read story here

February 25, 2008
Army Spc Kevin Mowl dies at National Naval Medical Center after 61/2 month battle
with Acinetobacter baumannii.
Kevins wounds were survivable. read story here

February 18
Completely Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumanni
kills 49 year old woman in Lousianna. Second patient on same floor dies from the
same.
Hospital admits to being source of infection. The Ab was tested for susceptibility to
every drug available and it was resistant to every one.

February 11, 2008
Palo Alto VA Polytrauma Rehab Center

It's the VA's premiere facility for severe brain trauma - one of only four such
hospitals in the country -- and the only one on the West Coast.
The notion makes Carol Blake laugh, "If that's premiere then I don't know what the
worst is - honestly."

And Orton has a warning: "to all parents who want their children to get better - don't
take them to Palo Alto." Blake describes her view of the VA Palo Alto rehab center
simply. "Incompetence, the level of incompetence was very high at the facility."

Her son Brandon suffered an aneurism at McChord Air Force Base. After surgery,
he went to Palo Alto VA for intensive therapy.   Carol Blake says the therapy was
minimal, and the staff was ill-equipped for someone with such a severe brain injury.
"My son's first doctor was a student from Stanford specializing in orthopedics," she
said.

She says the worst was when doctors and nurses ignored her for days after she
discovered swelling on Brandon's head. "I said 'did you look at the site that was
swollen?' he said 'yes I did.' I said 'then how on earth could you not notice that his
skull has opened and pus is coming from it?'"

An infection had penetrated Brandon's skull. Emergency surgery removed the
infection along with part of Brandon's skull. As soon as she could, Blake transfered
her son to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

January 25, 2008
Dutch Military battling new enemy
Soldiers in action against resistant bacteria
AD reports that "there is a similar intensive care unit at the Dutch military camp in
Afghanistan". "So we've got the experience to get everything set up quickly," adds
one of the soldiers with a wink.

January 16, 2008
Columbus Ohio Acinetobacter baumannii patient life support removed

January 15, 2009
Seven reported cases of Acinetobacter baumannii at University of Maryland Medical
Center, three dead
read story here

January 14, 2008
Ongoing Problems at Walter Reed
by Matt Tenner at TRUTHOUT

Encouraged by the firings of top military officials as a result of the problems at
Walter Reed, Connor spoke out about the dilapidated conditions at Walter Reed. He
sent a letter to Gen. Gregory A. Schumacher with recommendations for improving
conditions in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where there were equipment shortages
and outbreaks of infectious bacteria, including extremely dangerous drug-resistant
forms of Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium that has been ravaging injured
soldiers in Iraq and in domestic military hospitals.

The infection problems caused other units within the hospital to lose faith in the
ICU's ability to care for surgical patients. Because of the infections, "the kidney
transplant team will not recover their patients in the surgical ICU anymore," Connor
said in the interview.
According to Connor, his recommendations were not acted upon. Instead, he claims
that he was retaliated against. "I thought he would thank me for letting him know
where there were areas that needed to be fixed ... I have been retaliated against
because of the letters that I have sent out. It is pretty transparent ... Everyone that
has seen what happened around me is just like 'yeah, they're going after you.'"

January 12, 2008
Toledo Ohio healthy hospital worker infected with Acinetobacter baumannii and
MRSA fighting for her life

January 11, 2008
Iraq Afghanistan Blood Fears

Soldiers and staff have long given blood on the spot when needed.   There is no
excuse for them to be put in this position.
There is money for lobster in the Green Zone but not enough to properly equip,
supply, and man the medical facilities.

December 12, 2007
Health Officials warn hospitals of Afghan Bug
Threat posed by highly resistant bacteria underlines lack of preparedness
Federal authorities are warning hospitals across the country to beware of a highly
drug resistant bacteria that wounded troops are bringing back from Afghanistan --
and that could inadvertently be spread to civilian patients.

The threat posed by the resistant strain of acinetobacter underlines the health care
system's general lack of readiness for such emerging infections as they arrive in
the country, said a senior Public Health Agency of Canada official.

Insurgents in the Bloodstream
by Chas Henry
Kim Moran and Glenn Wortmann of Walter Reed discuss
Acinetobacter baumannii in the military evacuation system from Iraq and
Afghanistan and the toll it has taken on our casualties.

November 14, 2007
Polymicrobial Infections

Four years ago we were still trying to find out if Acinetobacter baumannii, which my
husband was being treated for following his trip through the Dogwood Field Hospital,
Landstuhl, and Walter Reed, was the same "bug" that so many wounded soldiers
from Iraq were infected with. The CDC and the DoD wouldn't answer that question
until I threatened to go to the press. Little did I know at the time that the press
wouldn't touch this subject.

Three years ago the website was started in an effort to warn people about this
dangerous bug. We hoped that maybe by exposing this problem the military would
be forced to deal with it. There was very little information available and the military
was keeping the lid on their problem.

Four and half years the military had to contain this bug but little was done and they
labeled it a "Mystery".

Infectious Disease Protocal was not followed.

Family members were not told how contagious it was..

Extremely drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains from the military medical
evacuation system have contaminated military and civilian medical facilities all
across the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, and every country with a wounded
soldier or civilian contractor that went home via a US field hospital and/or
Landstuhl. Landstuhl has treated casualties from 40 countries.

Innocent civilians are dying in hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical facilities
from MDR Acinetobacter baumannii. In many cases their family members are not
being told they have it.

Many soldiers and civilians are being infected with two, three, and even four
Superbugs at one time. Bethesda Naval Hospital has one of the largest outbreaks
of polymicrobial infections and refuses to release documents regarding this
despite FOIA filings. Ironically they claim these are "quality control" documents
and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

When you treat with toxic drugs for one superbug the other superbugs have no
competition and flourish.

Nick Narron was infected with MRSA, MDR A baumannii, Klebsiella pnuemonia, and E
coli after successful heart surgery at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville Kentucky this
summer. A transplant patient at the same facility was infected with MDR A
baumannii and VRE and didn't make it to the transplant.

MRSA, VRE, Klebsiella pnuemonia, C. diff have all fast tracked to drug resistance
alongside Acinetobacter baumannii in the underfunded, understaffed, overloaded
military medical system. The entire military health system has been infected.

Soldiers and civilian contractors have taken these pathogens with them when
transferred to private hospitals, long term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, and
their homes.

VA Medical Centers are all affiliated with civilian learning hospitals and staff
members routinely transit between facilities and patients without a change of
clothes.

Will we ever know how many lives and limbs have been lost since the beginning of
the Iraq War to these organisms?

Not likely.

The cause of death in military facilities will always be listed as from wounds
sustained in battle or ied attack. Civilian facilities will always list the death as
complications from the original reason for entering the hospital.

August 1, 2007
32 WLKY Target Investigaton SUPERGERMS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- For years, doctors have warned about the
overuse of antibiotics for fear that bacteria could become more
resistant. Now, there is more evidence they were right. Stronger
bacteria are invading hospitals across the country and Louisville.
Target 32’s Paul Moses discovered anyone can be a carrier and
not find out until it’s too late. “She never really understood what
was going on. One of the nurses had to write down ancinetobactor
baumannii on paper, give it to her and say ‘look it up,’” Marcie
Hascall Clark said. “This is what your husband has.”

read story and watch video here

The Battle over multiple drug resistant microbes:
MRSA, Acinetobacter baumannii, C. difficile, etc.

"Irresponsible medicine"

Early this year (2006) an 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. The government is
taking advantage of this technicality.

An ICU nurse at Bethesda Naval in Washington DC leaves work feeling under the
weather. Within 24 hours she is in a community hospital, intubated, with
Acinetobacter baumannii. It was determined that the bacteria were acquired from a
patient at work. She succumbed to the infection quickly and with no fan fare. The
story went silent.

At Brook Army Medical Center in Texas a soldier fights for his life, as his combat
wounds are made worse by infections the doctors can't seem to handle. The only
reason his story is known is that his civilian girl friend speaks up for him.

This outbreak that is spreading nation wide is largely due to the war in Iraq, and
because of a legal technicality in reporting, the military and CDC will not discuss it
publicly.

More people come forward, bit by bit, telling stories of how the hospital played
down their infection. The one person who could have done something about it,
"Rep. Dennis Moore" has walked away from the issue deciding it wasn't worth
getting into even after what he had seen on a visit to Walter Reed.

This silent killer is continuing to spread, and to an indifferent country until it's YOUR
turn.   These bacteria will grow out of control in the near future as it spreads
through neglect.

Every VAMC in this country that had a soldier from Iraq in it is contaminated with
MDR AB, as simple as a doorknob or privacy curtain to pass it on. Doctors often
work at VA hospitals and community hospitals also.

As long as it doesn't have to be reported it will not be.

You're on your own America, until you say enough is enough.

Focus On Acinetobacter Surveillance

Comments posted March 4th 2006

By September 2004 the Department of Defense had collected 934 positive
Acinetobacter baumannii cultures from 432 persons. This reported from the Navy
Environmental Health Center in Bethesda.

On September 21st, 2004 the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board met. They talked
about Acinetobacter baumannii with 350 colonized soldiers as well as 200 infections.

Yet, the CDC / DOD only announced 102 infection cases in the November 19th, 2004
MWMR report:

85 of the cases were OIF/OEF

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center   33

Walter Reed Army Medical Center   45

U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort       11

National Naval Medical Center           8

Brooke Army Medical Center            5

By August 2005 Forbes reported that at least 280 cases of infection had been
reported. The DOD stodgily stood by public statements of 112 infections.

The argument from CHPPM / MEDCOM is that colonized soldiers are a different story
from infected soldiers. A colonized soldier however is still a carrier. CHPPM is also
trying to say since this is just an infection they don't have to report it like infectious
disease. They are not cooperating to provide any updated statistics on it because
of a directive at MEDCOM stating they do not want to expose military vulnerabilities
publicly.

So its going to take a Congressional Inquiry to CHPPM in order to get a true idea of
just how many cases of Acinetobacter baumannii there are in the military. That and
how many are carriers. Spreading this infection from one hospital to another in
America.

Here is one example:

A soldier dies in VA care at the James A. Haley Medical Center in Tampa Florida, in
December 2004. He had extensive surgery in Iraq and was medivac'd to Landstuhl,
Germany, Bethesda MD, and finally JHMC. This was head, chest, and abdomen
trauma. After his death it was determined that he had tested positive twice for the
Acinetobacter, which would have changed the clinical outcome if
they had treated for it. (Page 22 of IG report)

What about the 7 cases at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii? Why were Chief
Warrant Officer 3 Claude Boushey Sr.'s case and others not discussed? That was
July 2004.

In other cases, family members cannot get the medical records of their deceased
soldiers. Many have died from non-combat injuries that the Pentagon is unwilling to
disclose information about even to the parents. These stall tactics keep anyone but
the military from knowing how many died of complications that the Acinetobacter
baumannii contributed too.

More than likely OIF troops walking into any Veteran Affairs Medical Center are
possible colonized cases that contaminate that facility.

This is a national threat to public health safety that the Department of Defense has
taken a very lax position on. What the public doesn't know wont hurt them, which is
certainly not true with a drug resistant bacteria that can be passed with as little as a
handshake.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Superbug hits Canadian soldiers injured in suicide bombing
Thu, 23 Feb 2006

Master Cpl. Paul Franklin of Halifax lost a leg, Cpl. Jeffrey Bailey from Edmonton had
devastating head injuries, and Pte. William Salikin of Grand Forks, B.C., also
suffered a head injury.

The three soldiers were first taken to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
When they left a week later, all three men were infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

Medical specialists aren't certain whether most infections started in the battlefield
or the hospital.
"It's thought that they may have gotten it from going through the hospital in
Landstuhl," said Lt.-Col. Henry Flaman, a Canadian military doctor in Edmonton.

Acinetobacter baumannii has become one of the most common sources of
infections among American troops wounded in Iraq.
The bacteria are found in soil and water in Iraq. When the microbes enter traumatic
wounds in the battlefield, the superbug can cause serious damage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Iraq Infection
Forbes Magazine - August 2nd 2005

NEW YORK - Military doctors are fighting to contain an outbreak of a potentially
deadly drug-resistant bacteria that apparently originated in the Iraqi soil. So far at
least 280 people, mostly soldiers returning from the battlefield, have been infected,
a number of whom contracted the illness while in U.S. military hospitals.

Most of the victims are relatively young troops who were injured by the land mines,
mortars and suicide bombs that have permeated the Iraq conflict. No active-duty
soldiers have died from the infections, but five extremely sick patients who were in
the same hospitals as the injured soldiers have died after being infected with the
bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii.

Note: The military knew there was no acinetobacter baumannii in the soil in
Iraq at the time they did these interviews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

From January 1, 2002 to August 31, 2004, military health officials identified 102
patients with blood cultures of Acinetobacter baumannii at military medical facilities
treating service members injured in Afghanistan and the
Iraq/Kuwait region.

Most of the infections were reported from

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, 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.

The Acinetobacter baumanii strain was isolated to the soil in Iraq, and enters
through dirty battle field wounds or serious infections ( Pneumonia ). The British
Health Protection Agency was the first to publicly identify this in March 2003, and
DOD waited till November 2004 to recognize it after the CDC posted the findings of
the 102 cases.
__________________________________________________________________________
Cases of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis at Walter Reed Army Hospital also showed up
with Acinetobacter baumannii. One person from there wants to meet others who
were there to share stories.

Marcie Hascall Clark    junglem@yahoo.com

Editors note:

This website is a continuation of the original Acinetobacter baumannii site acinetobacter.org which
belonged to us and was taken by the technical advisor. The original site remains at www.acinetobacter.
net. The site you will currently find at www.acinetobacter.org is our stolen site.
We apologize for any confusion.