The best info I have indicates its a relatively minor attack of Drug-resistant Acinetobacter. You can find out all about it here at the excellent US Government Center for Disease Control or CDC.
Outbreaks of Acinetobacter infections typically occur in intensive care units and healthcare settings housing very ill patients. Acinetobacter infections rarely occur outside of healthcare settings.According to the experts, as with the super-bug MRSA, its therefore in theory not a huge issue for 'normally healthy adults'. But of course it is a big issue for the immuno-compromised, people with open wounds, lung disease, the very young and very old, and diabetics. Unfortunately, that's a list of conditions that includes large numbers of people, especially in a hospital.
This would, of course, not be the first time. There was an outbreak at Royal reported in the Saudi Medical Journal in 2004, July V25(7):page 961-3: 'Outbreak of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter in the neonatal intensive care unit.' By Manzar S.
Department of Child Health, Royal Hospital, PO Box 1331, Postal Code 111, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. I'm sure our hospitals get super-bug outbreaks all the time. Its one of the reasons I like to stay away from hospitals - they are not healthy places!
Attempts to not talk about super-bug outbreaks in hospitals is also far from restricted to Oman. You'll read lots on the net about the same suppression of the truth about infection outbreaks in the UK and USA too. In fact, the whole super-bug thing can make some pretty scary reading. Last year it was reported that more people died of MRSA in the USA than of AIDS...
See google for more, if you want. Look up MRSA and Acinetobacter.
And wash your hands please.
