Medical personnel in Britain are deeply concerned about an antibiotic resistant bug called A. baumannii is not only infecting UK and US soldiers being treated for wounds from the Iraq war, but is also affecting civilians on the same hospital wards.

At one hospital in Birmingham the bacteria is reported to have infected 93 people, 91 of them civilians. Thirty-five died, although the hospital was not able to establish whether the superbug was a contributory factor.

A. baumannii is resistant to most common antibiotics and, if left untreated, can lead to pneumonia, fever and septicaemia. It has been identified in more than 240 military personnel in the US since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has been associated with five deaths.