Insurgents in the Bloodstream, Part III
posted 7:40 pm Wed November 28, 2007 - Washington
Since Monday we've been telling you about terribly destructive bacteria that threaten the lives and health of wounded men and women returning from Iraq. In the final installment of our series "Insurgent in the Bloodstream," Federal News Today's Chas Henry joins us to ask if enough is being done to address the problem.
Chas Henry on Camera: It's hard to pronounce, but dangerous - acinetobacter baumannii. One former military doctor I talked with calls this problem the largest in-hospital outbreak of its kind in history. And physicians still in uniform don't dispute the claim.
Story:
"You gotta put your finger over the hole to do that."
Col. Glenn Wortmann, Army Physician: "For us, because for the last several years, it's been a constant influx of patients. It's more of a prolonged outbreak than most hospitals have."
A handful of people have died after being infected. It's not clear how many. Others have suffered but lived - not just the combat wounded, but older patients and infants, who've been exposed - frequently the weakest of the weak.
Cmdr. Eric Elster, Navy Surgeon: "A lot of patients are colonized with acinetobacter, but it's the patients that have additional injuries, they're very systemically ill. They have an associated arterial injury, an associated abdominal injury - those are the patients that run into trouble."
Usually, but not always. A seemingly healthy nurse spent months near death after being exposed. At one point, doctors at Walter Reed found a relatively safe antibiotic to treat acinetobacter. But then, doctors in Iraq, working for different commanders, began using it on all casualties. The bacteria quickly developed resistance. And policies on infection control and antibiotic use haven't changed much, even after four years of battling the bacteria.
Col. Glenn Wortmann, Army Physician: "Over that time, has that created some hard and fast rules that everybody is bound to follow? No, no."
Col. Glenn Wortmann, Army Physician: "But there are guidelines and sort of loose oversight of the practicing patterns of the physicians, but there is no one person that says, Doctor Jones in Baghdad, you must do this."
Leading some to ask, isn't it time?
David Emery, Wounded Marine: "That's what really held me back. That's why I was laid up in the hospital for so long."
Chas Henry on camera:
Military physicians say infection numbers are coming down. But up to twenty percent of soldiers and Marine casualties returning from Iraq still test positive for acinetobacter.
Beverly:
It seems that lots of people are trying to deal with issue. Should that have led to more progress by now?
Chas Henry:
Infectious disease specialists at each point in the casualty treatment chain are dealing with the problem the best they can, but it's not clear at all from my reporting that the military has developed a systematic approach that harmonizes the efforts of the various military services and different commands around the world. One effort at dealing with this from the bottom up - a group of military physicians got together in San Antonio three months ago to discuss this problem. In a medical journal article, they'll discuss what they've seen. But four years after this insurgent in the bloodstream began attacking soldiers and Marines, critics say there's still too little coordination, and too many new infections.
CLICK HERE for Part I
CLICK HERE for Part II
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