Spread of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in a teaching hospital.
BACKGROUND
A. baumannii is an important opportunistic pathogen widely distributed in the hospital environment and responsible for a variety of nosocomial infections especially in patients from intensive care units.


OBJECTIVE
We describe an outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii (16 stains) in 3 intensive care units (I, II, III) at Charles Nicolle hospital of Tunis over a 5 month period (March to July 2005).


METHODS
The antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disc diffusion test and the genetic relatedness of isolates was done by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Two strains not related to the outbreak were used for the discrimination of the technique.


RESULTS
Samples were collected from blood (44%), materials (31%), pus (6.5%), urines (6.5%) and respiratory tract (12.5%). Antibiotic resistance pattern showed 2 different profiles. However, molecular typing of isolates revealed 3 distinct profiles (A, B, C) represented respectively by 8, 7 and one isolates. The major profile was the profile A found in 5 patients and in materials. It was appeared firstly in intensive care unit I, then in the 2 other units (II and III). The profile B was observed also in the 3 units. However, the profile C was found in one patient in unit I.


CONCLUSIONS
These data emphasize the need for active surveillance for multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and the value of molecular typing of strains in hospital settings to investigate spread of infection.
Hammami
Samia
S
Laboratoire de Recherche Résistance aux Antibiotiques Faculté de Médecine de Tunis.
Ghozzi
Rafiaa
R
Ben Redjeb
Saida
S
D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D014416:Tunisia