Superbug hits Canadian soldiers injured in suicide bombing

Last Updated: Thursday, February 23, 2006 | 9:10 AM ET

CBC News

The recovery of three Canadians wounded last month in Afghanistan has been slowed by battlefield bacteria infecting American troops in Iraq, CBC News has learned.

A suicide bombing killed Canadian envoy Glyn Berry and two Afghans, and caused serious injuries to three Canadian soldiers.

• INDEPTH: Afghanistan

Dr. Gina Dorlac

Master Cpl. Paul Franklin of Halifax lost a leg, Cpl. Jeffrey Bailey from Edmonton had devastating head injuries, and Pte. William Salikin of Grand Forks, B.C., also suffered a head injury.

• FROM JAN. 26, 2006: Doctors concerned about soldier wounded in Afghanistan

The three soldiers were first taken to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. When they left a week later, all three men were infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

Medical specialists aren't certain whether most infections started in the battlefield or the hospital.

• INDEPTH: Hospital infections

Acinetobacter baumannii has become one of the most common sources of infections among American troops wounded in Iraq.

The bacteria are found in soil and water in Iraq. When the microbes enter traumatic wounds in the battlefield, the superbug can cause serious damage.

"Most of your drugs that you have don't work on this particular organism," said Dr. Gina Dorlac, a U.S. military physician tracking infections at Landstuhl. "So it can be difficult to treat, and keep people in the hospital longer and possibly cause death that otherwise would not have happened."

Doctors at a civilian hospital in Edmonton used a drug combination to treat the infections.

Military officials won't say what role Acinetobacter played in the illness that nearly cost Bailey his life, and Franklin his second leg.

Acinetobacter infections have been linked to deaths in U.S. military hospitals. Putting sick people together in hospital where they are given antibiotics for other infections can make the bugs nastier, Dorlac said.

Officials in Edmonton aren't worried about Acinetobacter spreading to civilian patients, but they are concerned for soldiers passing through military hospitals.