uicksilver workshop
"The wounded soldiers were not smuggling bacteria from the desert into military hospitals after all. Instead, they were picking it up there. The evacuation chain itself had become the primary source of infection. 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."
If you or someone you love visits VA medical facilities, be aware of the dangers and keep an eye out for symptoms of infection. If you have the choice, seek care at civilian facilities whenever possible. I know this is a no-brainer for most of you, but let your parents and grandparents know too. From the article:
"One of the most unsettling long-term questions about the military outbreak is how far the bugs of war will proliferate now that thousands of Iraq veterans have entered the VA hospital system. Many of the older vets who are already there - struggling with chronic conditions for decades, in and out of nursing homes - fall into the bacteria's target demographic."
On a conspiratorial note: Do medical investigators have access to the engineered, oil-eating versions of this bug mentioned in the Wired article? Was it used in the clean-up operations following the first Gulf War? Did the engineers build in a genetic kill switch?
~Wired
Labels: Acinetobacteria, gulf war, iraq
