Acinetobacter baumannii
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative bacterium which has been in the news recently in reports of infections among soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Normally quite a mild-mannered species, Acinetobacter causes opportunistic nosocomial infections, entering the body through open wounds, catheters and breathing tubes, and usually infecting those with compromised immune systems.
At least 27 people have died with Acinetobacter infections in American military hospitals since 2003, and a particularly troublesome multiple antibiotic-resistant strain appears to have spread to at least five locations, including the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Hundreds of patients have suffered infections of the bloodstream, cerebrospinal fluid, bones or lungs, many of them were troops wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Acinetobacter baumannii is well on it’s way to joining the evil superbug club, alongside the existing members MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
