War wounded at Risk of Superbugs
HARROGATE, England (UPI) -- Soldiers who survive severe injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan can be at risk of developing infections in their wounds, U.S. researchers say. Dr. Clinton K. Murray of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, said that at the beginning of the 20th century improved military hygiene and disease control led to a steady decline in wartime deaths attributable to infections, classically known as "war pestilence," which included cholera, dysentery, plague, smallpox, typhoid and typhus fever. Though most infections can be treated with standard antibiotics, some -- methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella species and E.coli -- may be caused by pathogens resistant to many, if not all, of them. This requires clinicians to prescribe less commonly used antibiotics such as colistin, Murray said. "The development of more effective personal protective equipment, as well as training medics to provide life-saving procedures on the battlefield, has greatly improved survival rates," Murray said in a statement. "Positioning surgical and advanced medical care nearer to the point of injury has also enabled casualties to survive near-catastrophic wounds. But even though combat casualties are surviving these severe injuries, they risk developing wound infections." Murray presented the findings to the Society for General Microbiology Meeting at the International Centre in Harrogate, England.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
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