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| Iraq |
| Antibiotic resistant bacteria causing problems with injured troops in Iraq |
| 2008-02-22 |
| "It's why I lost my leg, so it sucks." The assessment, from a 22-year-old Marine toughing out physical therapy on two prosthetic limbs, is laconic, matter-of-fact. Sgt. David Emery lost one leg in February 2007 when a suicide bomber assaulted the checkpoint near Haditha, Iraq, where he and fellow Marines stood guard. Military surgeons were forced to remove his remaining leg when it became infected with acinetobacter baumannii -- a strain of highly resistant bacteria that since U.S. forces began fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has threatened the lives, limbs, and organs of hundreds wounded in combat. "They could have saved it," says Emery. "They had a rod in it, but then the bacteria was in too bad and my white blood cell count was up to 89,000-and they told my mom on a Friday that they had to take it." |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #4 Seem to recall something about the Russkies sticking with phage research while the west went all out toward antibiotics after the discovery of penicillin. Could be remembering that wrong. Interesting side note about drug resistant bacteria. Turns out we owe a lot of that to AIDS. It would have happened eventually anyway. AIDS sped it up. In the 80's there was a rapid appearance of a lot of people with suppressed immune systems dying of common infections. Doctors pumped them full of antibiotics, which kept them alive. But their bodies weren't strong enough to actually beat the infections. Tailor made set up to breed super bugs. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2008-02-22 23:20 |
| #3 We are going to regret spending billions on AIDS research while neglecting development of new antibiotics. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-02-22 22:05 |
| #2 I gather that Canadian researchers just discovered that a cholesterol drug has the bizarre side effect of sucking the pigment out of streptococcus and leaving it defenseless to the immune system. Still way too early to tell if it could be used against a real infection, though. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-02-22 20:45 |
| #1 This is a nasty antibiotic resistant bacteria. It is also present in the U.S. in hospitals. In looking it up, it was mentioned that phage therapy has been used in treatment for this bacterial infection. I have read that phage therapy was used quite a bit before the advent of antibiotics but that there has not been much interest in this treatment method in the U.S. I know little about phage therapy. My understanding is that a tailor made virus (bacteriophage) injected into the body is used to kill the bacteria. Any medical types know something about this phage therapy? Why is it not used more? Any downside to this type of treatment? Effectiveness? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-02-22 16:16 |