Iraq Toxin: Secret War against US GIs?

A real eye opening article from Wired.com on a new strain of antibotic resistant bacteria that's attacking American soliders in Iraq. Money quote:

"Since OPERATION Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, more than 700 US soldiers have been infected or colonized with Acinetobacter baumannii. A significant number of additional cases have been found in the Canadian and British armed forces, and among wounded Iraqi civilians. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has recorded seven deaths caused by the bacteria in US hospitals along the evacuation chain. Four were unlucky civilians who picked up the bug at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, while undergoing treatment for other life-threatening conditions. Another was a 63-year-old woman, also chronically ill, who shared a ward at Landstuhl with infected coalition troops."

Even more frightening:

"A nurse explained to me, "It's this bug that grows in the soil over there and gets blown into their wounds by IEDs. These poor guys are covered with it. Around here we call it Iraqibacter." Rumors were circulating at the hospital that insurgents dosed their homemade bombs with the flesh of dead animals."

Note: It seems to me that the number of antibotic resistant bacteria worldwide is on the rise, or at least is a natural issue. Also this isn't a problem that is unique to Iraq. However if you read over the article there are several political issues that stem from this, including a possible cover up by the US government:

"The Marine Corps public affairs office sent out the customary press release attributing Gadsden's [Marine injured in Iraq] death to "injuries as a result of enemy action." But then a few weeks later, Zeada's [Gadsden's mother] dentist told her a Florida newspaper was reporting that her son had died of bacterial meningitis. Aided by US representative Bill Young, Zeada - who works as a cardiac-care technician in South Carolina - demanded an investigation.

She discovered that an autopsy was performed shortly after her son's death. The coroner recorded the "manner of death" as "homicide (explosion during war operation)" but determined the actual cause of death to be a bacterial infection. The organism that killed Gadsden, called Nocardia, had clogged the blood vessels leading to his brain. But the acinetobacter had been steadily draining his vital resources when he could least afford it. For weeks, it had been flourishing in his body, undetected by the doctors at Haley, resisting a constant assault by the most potent antibiotics in the medical arsenal.

"No one said that my son had anything like that," Zeada says. "I never had to wear gloves or a mask, and none of the nurses did either. No one had any information.""

Not trying to conjure up some type of X-files conspiracy here, but it seems to the story would be worth some media coverage.

Hat Tip: Geezer Power