Bush and friends may have claimed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and foretold of a giant mushroom cloud but none were found...big f*ckin surprise. After their story fell flat the excuse to invade Iraq changed to spreading Democracy. The only problem is that there is a weapon of mass destruction that was created in Iraq and is now spreading beyond the civil war zone.
Acinetobacter is the weapon of mass destruction we should all be worried about. This bacteria was unleashed from the soil of Iraq and thanks to the life-saving medical technology available to the soldiers over there, it seems this virus has been able to adapt itself to fight off anything we have available.
The original story was written by Wired Magazine and if you have the time I highly recommend you read all 7000 words or so. The work that went into the article is nothing short of fantastic and covers everything imaginable on the topic. RawStory followed by Crooks & Liars posted about the topic yesterday. This bacteria preys on the sick, wounded, young and old. It is affecting our troops that have been wounded in battle and anyone that cannot protect themselves against it.
From RawStory:
A drug-resistant bacteria that is infecting wounded US soldiers in Iraq -- and has spread to civilian hospitals in parts of Europe -- accidentally evolved in US military hospitals in Iraq, Wired Magazine will report in a massive expose on Monday, RAW STORY has learned.
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The several thousand word expose is set to bring uncomfortable new light to the bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii that Pentagon officials previously said was likely a product of Iraqi soil.
"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," the magazine reveals.
The Wired article details the story of a young twenty year old marine named Jonathan Gadsden who was injured in Anbar province in the summer of 2004. Usually his injuries would have been fatal but he was treated by medics who quickly arrived on the scene. He was taken to a nearby hospital and stabilized before being flown to Germany for further work and then on to Bethesda Naval Hospital.
As Jonathan recovered from his wounds the Acinetobacter baumannii developed in his body undetected. His friends took him out of the hospital to a Redskins game and he was slowly returning to normal, only something was still wrong.
From Wired:
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.
In the taxonomy of bad bugs, acinetobacter is classified as an opportunistic pathogen. Healthy people can carry the bacteria on their skin with no ill effects - a process known as colonization. But in newborns, the elderly, burn victims, patients with depressed immune systems, and those on ventilators, acinetobacter infections can kill. The removal of Gadsden's spleen and the traumatic nature of his wounds made him a prime target.
Shortly afterwards Jonathan became gravely ill. On October 18th of 2004, less than two months after he was airlifted from the scene of battle, the 20 year-old marine suffered a seizure and a heart attack, eventually rendering him brain-dead. By October 22nd they switched off the life support system, officially ending the young man's time on this earth.
Afterwards the Marine Corp officially said Jonathan died of wounds attributed to enemy action, though an investigation was launched with the help of Rep. Bill Young.
Over 700 troops are reported to have carried the disease since the invasion was begun. Non-military patients have also contracted the deadly bug while being treated in the same hospitals as the infected troops. The Defense department has tried to keep this under the radar but thankfully we have magazines like Wired to broadcast this essential information.
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