Superbug brought back by Iraq war casualties

Several strains of the MDR AB have come back from Iraq with our soldiers and civilians wounded in Iraq. Some have come from Afghanistan but it is likely that they picked it up in our military medical system.

This has been spread nosocomially from our field hospitals in Iraq, to Lanstuhl, to Walter Reed, Bethesda, Brooks, Balboa, all of our VA hospitals and on to our community hospitals in many states. It can live on curtains, lab coats, ties, cell phones, surfaces, for days.

This has been handled poorly from the beginning. Protocal was not followed, patients were not isolated, and wound cultures were not taken for days (six in my husbands case).

Drugs were used to treat it that it was not sensitive to.

This could have been contained.

As usual the DOD's knee jerk reaction to making mistakes is to cover them up rather than deal with them. They have worked hard at keeping this under the wire and controlled the release of information under the guise of national security.

These strains are now almost completely drug resistant.

Overcrowded and understaffed facilities are prime grounds for the nosocomial spread of contagious pathogens. Our military medical system has been like this since the day we invaded Iraq. The spread of these bacteria is the direct result of going into the war unprepared to deal with the consequences.

No longer are only our soldiers and civilian contractors, their families, the Iraqi's and their families living (or dying) with the consequences of this war.

Innocent Americans will die due to this bug at much greater numbers than our 911 attack.
Marcie Hascall Clark

Posted by Marcie Hascall Clark to ReBelle Nation at 11/08/2006