NDM-1 in a US Military Hospital



source: wikipedia

Maryn McKenna has an interesting take on the MMWR report of NDM-1 in a US military hospital in Afghanistan. The patient had NDM-1 containing Providencia stuartii in a blood isolate collected early in 2011. This is the first case of NDM-1 in P. stuartii and in a US military hospital.  The parallels she draws to previous Acinetobacter infections in military hospitals are interesting. However, I'm not sure you can compare a specific species (Acinetobacter) to a plasmid-borne metallo-ß-lactamase (NDM-1), which can hop from species to species.

Either way, we will eventually need to beef up surveillance, infection prevention research and antibacterial drug discovery.  GNRs are not going away. I suspect the worldwide response to the many MDR-bacterial threats is going to require a significant reorganization and renewed focus (e.g. 1940s and 1950s) on how we fund these efforts. The days of nickel and diming these efforts, are coming to a close...