Why did the Department of Defense
ignore the CDC's warning
before going into war?

Leishmaniasis
The Baghdad Boil
Leishmania is a very variable bug,
There still is much we do not know
about it.  Very few people in this
country have any reason to know
anything about it, whether they be
MD's or whatever.   Persistant skin
rashes, blistery rashes on the
scalp, sores or wounds that do not
heal should all be considered for
leishmaniasis.

American doctors worry that North
American sandflies, which carry
another form of the disease, could
pick up the Asian strain from
returned veterans. It could then
spread through the general
population. read here


Disease gives Fogle a
nasty bite
He would be the first to admit that a
thirst for adventure is in his blood.

Ben Fogle
back in chemotherapy
Now, alas, the intrepid television
presenter tells me that it has
returned with a vengeance.
"I am facing six weeks of
chemotherapy and going to
hospital for several hours a day to
be put on drips to treat the
condition," says Fogle, 35, of his
battle with leishmaniasis. "I am
really frustrated as I

Fogle Update
But now Fogle, who recently
returned from the gruelling
Amundsen Omega 3 Race to the
South Pole, fears the disease is
still there and may spread to his
face.
Ben Fogles race plan hit by
flesh bug
“Ben is really suffering. His
immune system has been shot to
pieces. He is vomiting a lot, mostly
at nights. His joints and bones
ache and his muscles seize up.
He’s never taken a day off sick in
his life but he cannot work at the
moment.”

Ben Fogle's treatment
A thirty day course of toxic
pentavalent antimonials in high
dose administered daily by IV
infusion. As pentavalent is toxic
and classified as a ‘poison’ side
effects included aching, arthralgia,
fatigue, gastrointestinal upset,
elevation of amylase, lipase, and
liver enzyme levels, leukopenia,
anemia, and electrocardiographic
abnormalities. The treatment can
be traumatic to the patient, and
many are hospitalised for the
duration.


Animal Park host Ben Fogle
seriously ill after contracting
flesh-eating bug in Peru

US Captives in Columbia
come home with
Leishmaniasis
"the contractors were healthy and
“very, very happy” but two
suffered from the jungle malady
leishmaniasis."

Epidemic-Middle East-Iraq
Over 180 children have been affected with
Baghdad boil disease, or leishmaniasis, in
Iraq's southern province of Qadissiyah,
about 130km south of Baghdad, local
officials said.
Read here

Is this just the tip of the
iceburg?
Contaminated Blood from
US Supplies
possibly infects Brit Soldiers on
Frontlines

Chagas Disease
from Latin America  
Chagas'-positive donations have been
reported in 34 states with the highest
concentration in California, Florida and
Texas, according to data compiled by the
AABB.

Leishmaniasis now in
Thailand
A Nakhon Si Thammarat man has been
diagnosed with leishmaniasis disease. A
number of animals have tested positive, too,
the Provincial Livestock Office said.

North Texas Leish Outbreak
Numerous cases of the disease, called
leishmaniasis, have been reported in troops
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But for
the first time, cases of this dangerous
infection are appearing in North Texas in
patients who have not traveled to endemic
areas.

!!  Breaking News  !!
VA doctors owe family members
a duty to warn them of potential
risks when the veteran has
symptoms of an infectious disease.

Some (some 80%) in 296th
hit by 'Baghdad Boil'
read the story

"There were some places that   soldiers
and other Vector Control workers
absolutely wouldn't   go because of
leishmaniasis,"   says Manon. "It's almost
like  getting leprosy.   It's bad news."
Read the story

Contact
Marcie Hascall Clark      
321 779 6799

Leishmaniasis Q & A

Heads in the Sand

On December 11, 2024 Barbara Herwaldt, a
leishmaniasis expert with the CDC spoke
before the DOD in reference to
leishmaniasis and the soon to be war in
Iraq.  
She warned them that Leishmaniasis would
be a huge problem and that we were not
prepared to deal with it.
She told them that they would be in Iraq
during the prime sandfly season.
She explained that it was transmittable
sexually, congenitally, and by blood
transfusion.  
She requested that there be a ban on blood
donations from Soldiers and Civilians
returning from Iraq.  
This ban was not put in place until October
of 2003, long after thousands of soldiers
and contractors exposed to leishmaniasis
returned to their homes.

From the transcript
"In conclusion, the infection and the
disease--we have simplicity amidst
complexity.  We have recurring themes
of being able to activate decades after
latency; the possibility of at least
intermittent long-term parasitemia; the
transmissibility by blood transfusion but
we don't know the level of risk, and the
fact that visceral leish. can be fatal and
even bloodborne leish. can be fatal.  
Cutaneous leish. can be chronic and
morbid.  No gold standard for
diagnosis; no tests for mass screening;
no great treatment and the treatment
probably doesn't result in sterile cure;
and the need for better understanding
of the persistence and bioavailability of
these parasites"

All leishmaniasis is bloodborne

We have no sterile cure.
Transmitted Sexually, Congenitally,
and by Blood Transfusion

Leishmaniasis can take up to
twenty years to present itself in a
healthy person.

We have a ban on blood donations
for persons  having been in Iraq
or Afghanistan for one year

.Did the DOD heed this warning and
prepare our soldiers and civilian
contractors for the possibility of
becoming infected with
Leishmaniasis from the bite of the
sandfly in Iraq?

NO

Most soldiers were deployed
without netting, without proper
precautions.  The contractors were
totally on their own. They had no
warning at all.
Further there was no request for a
ban on blood donations until early
October 2003 requesting that one
be put in place by the end of
October.
Leishmaniasis lives in stored
blood for 30 days.

A simple explanation of a
complex bug

Leishmania are one celled protozoan
parasites which are normally spread by the
bite of a sandfly.  Hosts can be animals or
humans depending on the type.
Leishmania species from the gulf war
region are generally considered to be from  
two categories.   Cutaneous which normally
presents as skin lesions that may
eventually go away on their own.   The other
would be visceral which may or may not
present with skin lesions and can  attack
organs and bones and is deadly if not
treated.
Some cutaneous species in the New World
can cause mucosal leishmaniasis .
A third, little spoken of leishmania is called
viscerotropic.  This leishmaniasis is
thought by some to be a cause of the Gulf
War Illness from our last war in the region.

A More Scientific
Explanation

Leishmaniasis is caused by a
heterogeneous group of protozoan
parasites belonging to the genus
Leishmania. Some Leishmania species
primarily affect the skin; others are mainly
internal. It has become increasingly clear
that some species frequently associated
with visceral leishmaniasis can produce
skin lesions, and species usually found in
the skin can disseminate viscerally. In
addition, each clinical syndrome can be
produced by multiple species.
Although leishmaniasis occurs
predominantly in people living in endemic
regions, travelers to these areas can also
be infected, even after less than one week
of exposure. Cutaneous leishmaniasis has
been reported in U.S. military personnel,
primarily among those stationed in Iraq. (It’
s often called “the Baghdad boil.”)
Returning combat veterans should be
questioned about any skin rashes or
lesions. Diagnosis of leishmaniasis must
be confirmed by biopsy and polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) analysis, which is
available at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington, D.C., and Brooke
Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Combat veterans referred to their local VA
medical centers can be tested for
leishmaniasis, and their biopsies can be
sent to one of these facilities for final
diagnosis.
Leishmaniasis is transmitted from the bite
of sand flies. Any rash or skin disorder that
a combat veteran experiences during or
after deployment to Southwest Asia should
be investigated. While some skin disorders
may be harmless, health care providers
should rule out parasitic lesions as soon as
possible.

Evoluntionary Relation Between L
Tropica and Visceral Leishmaniasis
from Iraq

Kolesnikov AA, Saf'ianova VM.

Restriction analysis demonstrated that
the cleavage pattern of kinetoplast
DNA of visceral leishmaniasis
causative agent from Iraq was similar
to that of the anthroponotic cutaneous
leishmaniasis causative agent
Leishmania tropica, and differed from
that of the kinetoplast DNA of
Leishmania infantum and L. donovani,
typical visceral leishmaniasis causative
agents. Similarity was established both
for maxi- and minicycle molecules of
the kinetoplast DNA. Evolutionary
relation between L. tropica and the
causative agent of visceral
leishmaniasis from Iraq is suggested.


The persistence, dissemination,
and visceralization tendency of
Leishmania major  

Persistence of the L. major amastigotes in
the tissues differed from those of other
species causing visceral diseases. These
findings demonstrate a possible
visceralization tendency for L. major
previously recorded for L. tropica and L.
mexicana.
Commentary
The Truth about the "Iraqi Superbug" and the MIlitary's role
in spreading it.
By TREX at Firedoglake

In many ways, the Bush Administration's "War on Terror" has been able to
accomplish things that the terrorists themselves could only dream of.  It has
divided the American public against each other.  It has stretched our military so
thin that we would be helpless in the face of a real national emergency.  And
now, it has bred its own drug-resistant biological weapons, one of which is
rapidly making its way through civilian hospitals from California to Canada, on to
Germany and Anbar Province.  It's called acinetobacter baumannii and the US
military not only created the conditions that led to its development, but the
Pentagon has played an active role in exporting it to the world and in the
suppression of information that could have led to its containment.

From Wired Magazine:
I VISITED WALTER REED in 2004 to write about anesthesia on the front lines. As I
spoke with an Army sergeant who had survived a brutal attack in Najaf, US
senator John McCain and talk-radio host Don Imus came into the room to thank
him for his service. When we walked out, McCain's assistant whipped out a bottle
of sanitizing gel and passed it around. A nurse explained to me, "It's this bug that
grows in the soil over there and gets blown into their wounds by IEDs. These
poor guys are covered with it. Around here we call it Iraqibacter." Rumors were
circulating at the hospital that insurgents dosed their homemade bombs with the
flesh of dead animals.

It's true that many species of acinetobacter flourish widely in the environment.
Thriving colonies have been recovered from soil, cell phones, frozen chicken,
wastewater treatment plants, Formica countertops, and even irradiated food all
over the world. But the particular species causing the military infections,
baumannii, is almost always found in just one environment - hospitals.  Lenie
Dijkshoorn, a senior researcher at Leiden University Medical Center in the
Netherlands, has studied the bug since 1984. "My colleagues and I have been
looking for Acinetobacter baumannii in soil samples for years, and we haven't
found it," she says. "These organisms are quite rare outside of hospitals."

Hear that?  No acinetobacter baumannii in the soil of Iraq.  However, it is found
at every stop along the military "evacuation chain" from Iraq back to the US and
Europe.

Soon, however, the bug started popping up in other hospitals along the
evacuation chain. More than 70 patients at Walter Reed eventually contracted
acinetobacter infections of the blood. Other infected patients and carriers
surfaced at Landstuhl, Bethesda, and Balad Air Base, the embarkation point for
troops on their way out of Iraq. By early 2005, nearly one-third of the wounded
soldiers admitted to the National Naval Medical Center had been colonized by the
bacteria.

But where did this superbug come from and what exactly does it do?  All
hospitals have nosocomial (secondary) bugs.  This version of acinetobacter  
undoubtedly existed in a less virulent form in the medical facilities prior to the
war, but the massive over-prescription of wide-spectrum antibiotics by American
medical personnel is what gave it its ferocious drug-resistance.   And as for what
it does, this is what happened to 20-year-old Marine Jonathan Gadsden after he
was severely injured by a road-side bomb and evacuated back to the US:

At first, he did quite well. By early September, Gadsden was weaned off his
ventilator and breathing on his own. For weeks he gradually improved. His
buddies took him to a Washington Redskins game in his wheelchair, and the next
day he navigated 50 feet with a walker. Soon Gadsden was transferred to a
veterans' hospital in Florida called the James A. Haley Medical Center, where he
offered to serve as the eyes of a fellow marine blinded in an ambush. The doctors
told Zeada that her son might be able to go home by the end of October.  But he
still had mysterious symptoms that he couldn't shake, like headaches, rashes, and
intermittent fevers. His doctors gave him CT scans, laxatives, methadone,
beta-blockers, Xanax, more surgery, and more antibiotics. An accurate evaluation
of his case was difficult, however, because portions of his medical records never
arrived from Bethesda. If they had, they would have shown a positive test for a
kind of bacteria called Acinetobacter baumannii.  Gadsden died on October 22nd.  
His mother Zaeda Gadsden wanted to know why.

She discovered that an autopsy was performed shortly after her son's death. The
coroner recorded the "manner of death" as "homicide (explosion during war
operation)" but determined the actual cause of death to be a bacterial infection.
The organism that killed Gadsden, called Nocardia, had clogged the blood vessels
leading to his brain. But the acinetobacter had been steadily draining his vital
resources when he could least afford it. For weeks, it had been flourishing in his
body, undetected by the doctors at Haley, resisting a constant assault by the
most potent antibiotics in the medical arsenal.  "No one said that my son had
anything like that," Zeada says. "I never had to wear gloves or a mask, and none
of the nurses did either. No one had any information."

Now, don't you think that if the doctors at Bethesda knew that Gadsden had
been colonized by this organism that they should have maybe told the personnel
at Haley Medical in Florida?  Curiously, no one saw fit to inform the veterans'
hospital what Gadsden was bringing with him.  But this is part and parcel with
the government's strategy for "fighting terror" with speeches and photo-ops and
letting the underfunded, ill-equipped military cope with the unintended
consequences of their disastrously mis-planned war(s).  The whole reason we have
this bug is because the combat hospitals in Iraq have never been adequately
supplied, sterilized, or maintained:

Known as combat support hospitals or CSHs, these facilities had been hastily
erected in tents and other temporary structures, in keeping with the Pentagon's
goal of a lean and mobile fighting force. Maintaining sterile conditions in the
desert required creative efforts. Sand blew through every available opening in the
walls, and the 130-degree days took their toll on drugs, power supplies, and
diagnostic equipment. To move trauma care closer to the action, the DOD
deployed modified shipping containers called ISO boxes as portable operating
rooms. It was standard procedure to have a dozen nurses, surgeons, and
anesthesiologists in each box crowded around two patients undergoing surgery
simultaneously - an infection risk in any hospital.  At the 28th CSH near Camp
Dogwood - home to more than 4,000 US and British soldiers - there was only one
washer and dryer to launder all of the linen, including the surgical scrubs. Army
nurses reported to the DOD that "sheets were more often than not soaked with
blood and other body fluids - linen that covered the patients who were
transferred back to Germany was not replaced." When hospital-grade
disinfectants ran low, which was often, the supply crew stocked up on bleach
from a local bazaar.

The derelict infrastructure of the Ibn Sina, where Jonathan Gadsden was treated
during his evacuation, bedeviled the staff's best infection-control efforts.
Rainwater dripped into operating rooms and supply closets, and pigeons roosted
in the ventilation system, wafting the smell of droppings into the surgical suites.
(A request was filed to the Iraqi Ministry of Health in September 2003 to
"eliminate bird feces" from the air ducts.) Clean sheets and scrubs were scarce at
the Ibn Sina as well, because the civilian laundry contractor was apparently selling
them on the black market.

Ah, yes.  Mr. Rumsfeld's "lean and mobile" army.  What a smashing little war this
is!

The wounded soldiers were not smuggling bacteria from the desert into military
hospitals after all. Instead, they were picking it up there. The evacuation chain
itself had become the primary source of infection. By creating the most heroic and
efficient means of saving lives in the history of warfare, the Pentagon had
accidentally invented a machine for accelerating bacterial evolution and was
airlifting the pathogens halfway around the world.

But of course, once it figured out what was happening, the military took
immediate measures to inform everyone at risk for infection and make sure that
this menace never spread beyond its initial disease vectors, right?

Wrong:  As the bacteria spread through hospitals in the US and Europe, the DOD
worked overtime to keep a lid on the rumors. In a PowerPoint presentation about
acinetobacter and pneumonia delivered at the US Air Force School of Aerospace
Medicine, a slide labeled "How to handle the press" read: "Don't lie. Don't
obfuscate. Don't tell them any more than you absolutely have to."  

Yes, like every other problem that has arisen in our nation's prosecution of the
Bush Administration's "Great War on Terror", rather than deal with the issue in a
frank, open, and effective manner, the governmen
Lee and Bob Woodruff
talk about his battle
with Acinetobacter
Baumannii  on
Larry King Live CNN

KING: Did you ever think, Lee,
that Bob might be gone?

L. WOODRUFF: Yes, I did. I did.
It was touch and go when they
first had him in surgery. And
then a second nightmare
occurred which happens to a
lot of the soldiers, sepsis and
pneumonia because he was in
such a -- his body was in such
an embattled state and there
say bacteria that soldiers are
bringing back from Iraqi soil.
The Acinetobacter  bacterium.
And it is so advanced and so
unknown here that they have
actually had to pull out
antibiotics from World War II to
fight it, it is such a tough strain.
And Bob had every kind of
antibiotic his body and they told
me if he did survive, he would
probably have organ damage
from the strength of them.
Staff at Walter Reed
Says:
We Are Drowning
in War
Max Cleland on
Situation Room
"It Is Just Not
Walter Reed"
By Anne Hull and Dana
Priest
"The VA hospitals are not
good either except for the
staff who work so hard. It
brings tears to my eyes
when I see my brothers and
sisters having to deal with
these conditions."
Photos by Wired Magazine
Yes Virginia, it's true,
you can't believe
everything you hear on
CNN!  This was a real
FOXY move.
May 8 between 7 and 8 pm on
the Situation Room CNN's
Barbara Starr did a
remarkably biased interview  
on Mystery Infections by the
Pentagon.  Nearly every
statement made by the
Pentagon is untrue.
On the morning of May 9
between 8 and 9am the
propaganda continues
Mystery Infections
For the transcripts
LINKS
Acinetobacter
Baumannii

epiNEWSwire

Defense Base
Act
Insurance Issues
Before risking life and limb
working for a contractor in
Iraq find out just how much,
or more importantly, just  
how little your life or limb
are worth.
www.
dbacomp
.com

American Contractors
in Iraq

Number One by the
State Department



Nam Guardian Angel

Iraq Contractors
Raw Data from
CENTCOM

End Hospital
Secrecy and Save
Lives

Ms Sparky's
Mishaps and
Misadventures

Morgellon's

Merlin's
Miracles

Military Stifles Web-
based Health Records
System

Friendly Medical
Malpractice

Plus, I had a bad
infection goin', which
is, they say, is common
to
most of the guys
that are getting injured
in Iraq," Reed said.

Still, his doctors
wanted him to leave
the hospital to reduce
the chances of his
getting another
infection

The War — and the
War on Disease
Health officials are bracing
as Iraq veterans  bring home
stronger new diseases.
Specifically, these soldiers
have been infected with
bacteria known as
Acinetobacter baumannii




The Wars
Come Home
Featured Story  by
Steve Silberman
Contributing Editor
Wired Magazine


The
Invisible Enemy
in Iraq

In the open source world
of bacteria, everyone is
working for the
resistance. Ramping up
the immunity of any
single organism, while
dramatically increasing
the size of the population
most susceptible to
infection, only helps the
enemy. To an aspiring
superbug, war is anything
but hell.

Field Hospitals the
source of XDR
Acinetobacter
baumannii infections
in US Soldiers

Bethesda Naval
Hospital withholds
polymicrobial
infection rates
@ Epinewswire  
Investigative Public
Health Journalism

Not to be an alarmist
about it, but there's a
super germ right here
in the U.S.A. that is
hard to diagnosis
and even harder to
treat and, oh yeah, it's
killing people"   Jon
Carroll on Ab from Iraq
read here
San Francisco
Chronicle
by Casey J
Clark
What Makes Acinetobacter So Scary?
by Mike the Mad Biologist

Acinetobacter, We're All Going to Die


Well, actually only about 30,000 per year, if we can extrapolate
from the Israeli experience. One of the things  that makes
Acinetobacter so dangerous is that it is multi-drug resistant.

Acinetobacter: It's Worse Than We Thought
One of the talks I heard at the ICAAC meeting was about the
emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii (given by Yehuda
Carmeli). Israel is having serious problems with Acinetobacter
infections (both sepsis infections and pneumonia for patients on
ventilators). What makes this bacterium so terrifying is that it's
multidrug resistant, and in some cases, resistant to everything
we can currently throw at it. The only drug that (almost always)
works is colistin which has serious side effects, and is not widely
manufactured.

Antibiotic Resistance and National Healthcare

One reason that antibiotic resistanct bacteria are out of control
in the U.S. is our fragmented healthcare system externalizes the
economic and medical costs of antibiotic resistance. Essentially,
no one 'owns' the problem. In hospitals, it's far too expensive to
screen and isolate patients who enter carrying antibiotic resistant
bacteria (e.g., MRSA, VRE, Acinetobacter baumannii). Infected
medical workers, who can act as Typhoid Marys, can't be sent
home; unpaid leave would result in strikes, and hospitals don't
want or can not afford to pay for workers who are on '"antibiotic
resistance leave"
Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria from Iraq is no MYSTERY
Why did the Pentagon and the Centers for Disease Control refuse to
discuss this public health threat publicly for four years?


The Acinetobacter Threat








By Bryant Furlow at EPI

See also  The Acinetobacter Threat at
The Medical Muckraker

Think MRSA is scary? Since the mid-2000s, a more environmentally
persistent, increasingly antibiotic-resistant infection has spread
through-out western Europe and the U.S.

The arrival of extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter at U.S. hospitals
caught public health officials off guard. Throughout the 1980s and
1990s, these infections were increasingly rare, with declining infection
rates.

But in 2003, U.S. Army physicians began noting a high rate of antibiotic-
resistant Acinetobacter infections among soldiers wounded and initially
treated in Iraq — and sporadic reports began to suggest the infections
were spreading from wounded soldiers to other patients at military health
care facilities.

Cross infection from injured soldiers and contractors was recognized as a
"particular problem" in the U.K. but the U.S. military has consistently
downplayed the risk of spread. Isolation and infection control procedures,
promoted on paper, were widely ignored in clinical practice. By
2007, Acinetobacter had become one of the most common gram-negative
hospital infections.
Now it is invading nursing homes.

Recent studies tie Acinetobacter drug resistance to infection lethality,
contrasting sharply with early military research, which suggested
Acinetobacter infections do not kill.

Beginning in June, epiNewswire will be exploring the origins of the
Acinetobacter threat with continuing coverage of this and other emerging
hospital infections. Check our continuing
coverage of new studies in the research briefs column.


Acinetobacter sweeping through long-term care
facilities, nursing homes

"Acinetobacter infection was associated with high rates of adverse
outcomes, including discharge to extended care facilities, hospice
referral and death," the authors reported. "Increasing degrees of
antibiotic resistance of Acinetobacter strains were associated with
discharge to extended care facilities or death."



Three Canadian Soldiers sick with Superbug
40% of Soldiers returning with Acinetobacter

Fierce Iraq war opponent   
Rep. John Murtha dies from  
infection acquired at National Naval Medical Center

XDR
Acinetobacter baumannii

The empowerment and nosocomial spread of Acinetobacter baumannii
strains via the military evacuation chain from Iraq

Report Cases of Ab here     View our Casualty page
View map and list of infected civilian hospitals here
Send us your questions

Antibiotic Resistance
Wastewater treatment plants and Acinetobacter

Come on Clint Murray give up the spin
MRSA, MDRDAb, Psuedomonas  aeruginosa, Klebsiella pnuemonia
are all hospital acquired infections that are not
found on a soldiers skin before they enter the military health system

"Microbes on the casualty's skin can be introduced into the wound at
the time of injury or during subsequent medical care."

Seems like just January of 2007 when  a report he authored
concluded that:

Skin carriage of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus‐baumannii complex was
not detected among a representative sample of 102 US Army soldiers
stationed in Iraq. This observation refutes the hypothesis that
preinjury skin carriage serves as the reservoir for the Acinetobacter
infections seen in US military combat casualties.


Caring for Vet's Diseases Could Cost Canada $11.5 Billion
Acinetobacter baumannii, a "successful pathogen" with a talent for
resisting antibiotics. According to one study, four wounded Canadian
soldiers seem to have picked up A. baumannii from a mechanical ventilator
in the military field hospital at Kandahar, and came home with a stubborn
pneumonia.

MDRA.baumannii  may often contaminate protective
equipment of health care workers
Almost 40% of protective gowns and gloves worn by health care workers
who were exposed to patients with multidrug resistant Acinetobacter
baumannii became contaminated during contact, according to findings
presented at the 2009 meeting of the Society of Healthcare
Epidemiologists of America, held in San Diego.

Don't let them Ditch your loved ones
Hospitals "ditching" patients with troublesome infections  to nursing
homes.  Ditching keeps them from having to report outbreaks in their
facility and keeps their ratio of deaths down even they usually are the ones
to give them the infection in the first place.
Report ditching here

Paula Loyd dies from Infection at BAMC








Paula Loyd, an anthropologist doused with gasoline and set on fire by a
man in Kandahar in early November. Two months later, Loyd died at
Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
"We thought she was going to be OK," Roberts said. "But then the
infection, and the pneumonia. It was a shock."

Two hospital patients with bacterial infections die
March 2, 2025   CHICAGO -- Two intensive-care patients at Roseland
Community Hospital in Chicago have died after becoming infected with a
common bacteria, the hospital said today.

Bush gives Nursing Homes the E Ticket on his way out

The Pentagons Propaganda Campaign

Sgt US Army Sergeant Matthis Chiroux.
He was an Army propagandist
read his interview here

After three years another delay in Brain Injury Screening
Number of soldiers returning to combat with brain injuries is unknown
Col.: DOD delayed brain injury scans
For more than two years, the Pentagon delayed screening troops returning
from Iraq for mild brain injuries because officials feared veterans would
blame vague ailments on the little-understood wound caused by exposure
to bomb blasts, says the military's director of medical assessments. Air
Force Col. Kenneth Cox said in an interview that the Pentagon wanted to
avoid another controversy such as the so-called Gulf War syndrome.

Why this belongs on the Iraq Infection Site?
If you were a blast victim who was infected with Acinetobacter baumannii in
the military health system your freshly compressed brain cells were bathed
in huge doses of neurotoxic drugs
At the very least this created a hostile environment for your brain to heal,
either slowing or inhibiting healing
At the worst, it further damaged your brain.
Contact us if this applies to you
[email protected] or
321 779 6799
This applies to contractors as well as military If you are a contractor your
Defense Base Act insurance company will refuse to pay for TBI screening

Deadly Bacteria defy drugs, alarming doctors
When Ruth Burns had surgery to relieve a pinched nerve in her back, the
operation was supposed to be an "in-and-out thing," recalled her
daughter, Kacia Warren, Ohio Infectious Disease Forum
Burns developed pneumonia and was put on a ventilator. Five days later,
she was discharged -- only to be rushed by her daughter to the hospital
hours later, disoriented and in alarming pain.
Seventeen days after the surgery, the 67-year-old nurse was dead.

Brazilian model Mariani Bridi who lost hands, feet to drug
resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, dies
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is another gram negative hospital acquired
infection which is prevalent in the military and civilian health systems.  
They know exactly where this model was infected though they are
declaring another great mystery.
Story here

23 Fukuoka patients infected with
MDR Acinetobacter baumannii
Twenty-three patients at a hospital in Fukuoka City have been infected with
multiple-drug-resistant bacteria called Acinetobacter since last October,
with four patients dead, hospital officials said Friday. The officials at
Fukuoka University Hospital said two of the four did not die due to the
infection, but that two others may have died from it. The four are in their
20s to 60s.

Good Riddance Gerberding
Gerberding has been accused -- correctly in our opinion -- of politicizing
the agency, destroying CDC's morale, reorganizing its structure and its
priorities to within an inch of its useful life, and failing to defend the
agency and public health in general in the face of a systematic onslaught
by the Bush administration. Her management style was autocratic and
hamhanded and she repeatedly allowed incompetent cronies and lapdogs
to make important decisions about scientific programs. She was a
sycophant of the first order. Good riddance."
Editors note:  It was under this cloud that the CDC was told NOT to discuss
Acinetobacter baumannii infections with the public.
Public Health, the Surgeon General, and the CDC

Report Grant Hospital Columbus Ohio Infections here

The Baghdad Hack
They call it the Baghdad Hack. According to one recent estimate by Navy
doctors, more than two-thirds of soldiers coming back from Iraq
experience at least one episode of respiratory illness, and 36 troops have
come down with a rare and sometimes fatal condition known as acute
eosinophilic pneumonia.
In 2005, Lyles prepared a report for the office of the Navy Surgeon General
that recommended that N95 dust protection masks be issued upon request
and that convoys be protected from dust exposure. Lyles is still not sure
whether the Navy ever took up his initial recommendations, and the Navy
Surgeon General's office did not respond to repeated requests for
comment.
The Baghdad Hack and Cannon Fodder

A document saved from the Army's shredder
A soldier who was ordered to shred documents about two soldiers killed in
an apparent friendly fire incident rescued some of the paperwork and gave
it to Salon.

November 20, 2024
On October 14, 2008, Salon published an article about the deaths of Army
PFC Albert Nelson and PFC Roger Suarez.  The Army attributed their deaths
in Iraq in 2006 to enemy action; Salon's investigation, which included
graphic battle video and eyewitness testimony, indicated that their deaths
were likely due to friendly fire.  On the night of October 14, 2008, after the
publication of Salon's article, soldiers at Fort Carson, Colorado, were
ordered to shred documents related to both Nelson and Suarez.  As proof
that they were ordered to destroy the paperwork, a soldier saved some
examples and provided them to Salon.
Read Story and see documents here

U.S. Army delays, alters medical studies under little-known
scientific censorship program
Bryant Furlow   Epinews
Policy 'stifles scientific discourse,' says an Army epidemiologist

Since 2006, U.S. Army censors have scrutinized hundreds of medical studies,
scientific posters, abstracts, and Powerpoint presentations authored by doctors and
scientists at Walter Reed and other Army medical research centers, documents
obtained with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal—part of a little-known
prepublication review process called "Actionable Medical Information Review."  

The program is intended to deny Iraqi and Afghan insurgents sensitive data such as
combat injury and death rates. But dozens of studies reviewed under the program did
not involve research related to combat operations. They did, however, include
potentially controversial research, such as studies of the effects of war on soldiers'
children and families, hospital-acquired infections, veterans' post-deployment
adjustment issues, refugees, suicide, alcoholism, vaccines, cancer among veterans
of the 1991 Gulf War, and problems with military health care databases.  

More than 300 scientific documents have been reviewed by Army censors to date.
Overall, fewer than half have been cleared for publication in their original form. In
2007, 6 percent of papers were denied permission for public disclosure, but so far
this year that denial rate has nearly tripled to 17 percent.
Iraqibacter
A relatively benign bug becomes a highly lethal pathogen,
known to U.S. soldiers as Iraqibacter.
Watch the segment done by Nova Science aired on PBS July 9, 2024
here
Note that they start the story out by implying that Acinetobacter baumannii
is being picked up on the streets in Iraq.  If they had as much as read the
story to our left here they would know the truth.

June 30th
Brownsville Texas Acinetobacter baumannii patient dies

June 8
How much impact have neurotoxic drugs used in high
doses to treat Acinetobacter baumannii had on the healing
and recovery of TBI Traumatic Brain Injury ?

June 05, 2024
Byrd released from hospital, recovering from infection

June 2, 2024  8:30 pm
Senator Byrd hospitalized again with fever
Is he still suffering from infection he picked up at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center?

May 28, 2024
Fresno's Saint Agnes Medical Center suspends heart
surgeries
This isn't the first time the hospital has had a problem with infections. Last
fall, the state and the Centers for Disease Control investigated a higher
than normal number of infections after surgery.


Injured US Troops Battle Drug Resistant Bacteria
NPR Weekend Edition Sunday May 11
story and audio here
Note:  Wortmann claims that they don't know where the Acinetobacter
baumannii came from.  While that is less than the whole truth what is
important is how they empowered it and where they  spread it !!
These strains of Acinetobacter baumannii could have been contained.
If they can pay to send these soldiers into war they should be paying for
adequate staffing, supplying, and the best medical care possible.
Too few are working with too little.



.









Marine Sgt. David Emery, shown with his daughter, Carlee, was injured in
an explosion in Iraq. The highly drug-resistant bacteria Acinetobacter
baumannii complicated his recovery.

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

Southern Australian man struck by Superbug
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.

Brownsville Texas 19 people tested positive for
Acinetobacter baumannii at Valley Baptist Medical Center
McAllen, Alamo, Weslaco, Harlingen, San Benito

Both of these stories are full of misinformation
This is what we're up against and people are dying because of it
read story and watch video here
here's another one with video

Updated April 16, 2024
Senator Robert Byrd
Senator Robert Byrd, the senior senator from  West Virginia, fell in
February and went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he picked
up an "infection" that he has been hospitalized again for.
Now that this infection, and more likely the drugs used to treat it,  has
deteriorated his health he is being deemed unfit to preside over the
War Bill hearing.
Is Senator Byrd another uncounted casualty of the Iraq War?

It's
" NO BIG DEAL "
this happens here all the time !!
Staff at
Milwaukee Wisconsin VA Hospital
tell family members not to worry it's no big deal that their loved one has
Acinetobacter buamannii pnuemonia, sepsis, that his kidneys have shut
down, that the antibiotics aren't working, and that Infectious Disease
Protocal was not being followed until just a few days ago.

Soldiers blamed for deadly superbug
by Michele Paduana  the 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.
story and video here

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

What is Acinetobacter baumannii ?
Frequently Asked Questions

April 11, 2025
Sgt Merlin German
Though he died unexpectedly after a surgery last week, the indomitable
spirit of Sgt. Merlin German lives on at Brooke Army Medical Center,
friends and family members said during a touching tribute to the Marine
called the "Miracle Man."












Burn patient Merlin German with Lt. Gen. James F. Amos during a
promotion ceremony last May at BAMC. The cause of the sergeant's death
was pending the return of autopsy results.












Please visit Merlins Miracles for more on Merlin and his plans to help
children who were burn victims
www.merlinsmiracles.com

March 21,2025
Collins soldier loses rest of one leg due to infection













An infection in the remaining portion of Army Sgt. James T. Hackemer’s left leg prompted
doctors to remove the rest of the limb up to his hip, family members said Thursday.   “It was
really a touch-and-go situation. We were told that they were removing the rest of his leg
because the infection was spreading to the rest of his body, and it was affecting his brain
waves,” said John Hackemer Jr., the father of the Town of Collins service member.

March 14, 2025
Staff Sgt. Collin Bowen





dies after emergency surgery
for infection at BAMC

February 25, 2025










US Army Spc Kevin Mowl dies at NNMC
after fighting infection for seven months
read more here

Completely Drug Resistant
Acinetobacter baumannii
A forty nine year old woman dies in Louisianna hospital from Ab
which was tested for susceptibility to every antibiotic available
go to list of infected hospitals

More on Palo Alto

Palo Alto VA Still Infecting
"to all parents who want their children to get better - don't take them
to Palo Alto."
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.

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.


Acinetobacter baumannii reported in  Dearborn Michigan

Navy Hospital Malpractice Suit is Settled for $750,000
Woman died in 2005 from blood infection
story here

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

Ongoing Problems at Walter Reed
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.
video and interview with Doug Conner by Matt Renner Truthout

Health Officials warn hospitals of Afghan Bug
Threat posed by highly resistant bacteria underlines lack
of preparedness

Insurgents in the Bloodstream
by Chas Henry
A three part video on Acinetobacter baumannii in the military evacuation
system
watch story here

Palo Alto VA Polytrauma Center
Sends infected patients to private hospital in Seattle
read story here

Acinetobacter baumannii from Housefly's

Updated October 15, 2024

Bethesda Navy Hospital withholds polymicrobial infection rates

Attorney Scott Hodes and epiNewswire have filed an administrative appeal of Bethesda Naval
Hospital’s
refusal to release documents detailing the incidence of drug-resistant
polymicrobial infections--the simultaneous infection of patients with two or more species
read here

Tampa VA Re-infects Wounds
read here
Salt Lake City VA infects
read here

Canadian Soldiers get Acinetobacter baumannii in Field Hospitals in
Kandahar Afghanistan?
read here

Updated August 28, 2024

Nick Narron died today at Jewish Hospital in Louisville KY
May he find Peace

Featured Story by
Paul Moses WLKY Louisville KY

SUPERGERMS
Story and Video Here

“Do consumers, people who are going to the hospital, have a way of knowing if they're going
to a clean hospital or a dirty hospital?” Infection Control Advisor Dr. Bill Templeton said. “They
really don't.”

Templeton advises several local healthcare facilities on infection control and he said
hospitals aren’t required to share infection statistics with the public. The Health Department
doesn’t track it either. In fact, reporting is voluntary - even though bacteria like Acinetobactor
baumannii can be transmitted from countertops, curtains and other mundane surfaces on
which it can live.

Coming Soon to a Hospital Near You!

As early as April of 2003 casualties of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars were testing positive for
Multi Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii at Landstuhl, Walter Reed, the hospital ship
comfort. Though this bug was a hospital acquired infection it was claimed that the bacteria
was from the soil in Iraq.

The DoD put more effort into covering this problem up than they did into containing it.

Standard protocal for infectious diseases was not followed anywhere along the military chain
or at the private hospitals.

These specific strains of Acinetobacter baumannii have grown resistant to every available
antimicrobial and have spread throughout the military health system to include the VA health
system.

Acinetobacter baumanni has spread to civilian hospitals all over the US, the UK, Australia, and
other countries where wounded soldiers and contractors have visited a field hospital in Iraq
or
Landstuhl in Germany.

Soldiers and contractors have lost lives and limbs needlessly to this bacteria.  
Innocent civilians are losing their lives to this in military and civilian hospitals.
Staff members in military and civilian hospitals are being infected with this.

The MSM Media continues to ignore this deadly problem.

How many more lives and limbs need to be lost before the public is warned and the hospitals
are forced to clean up and follow infectious disease control protocal?

How much longer will soldiers and their families be told their deadly infections were caused
by the soil in Iraq or animal waste put on bombs?

It's time for the truth.

Every member of Congress was delivered a copy of
The Invisible Enemy in Iraq
when it was published in the February issue of Wired Magazine.

Call or write them and ask them why they refuse to do anything about this.
They do know about it.


Contact Your Elected Officials

Questions about Acinetobacter baumannii, Leishmaniasis, or this website
Contact
Marcie Hascall Clark
[email protected]
The Iraq Infections
The
Invisible Enemy
in Iraq
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Syndrome
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