Abstract
BackgroundAcinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen causing various nosocomial infections. The spread of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii is a major public health problem. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology and the genetic support of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii isolates collected from Saint-Georges Hospital in Lebanon.MethodsBetween January and August 2016, 31 A. baumannii isolates were collected from sputum samples of patients infected with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and treated with colistin-carbapenem combination therapy. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using the disk diffusion method. Carbapenemases, extended spectrum β-lactamases encoding genes and mcr-1/2 genes were investigated by RT-PCR and standard PCR. The epidemiological relatedness of the strains was studied using MLST analysis.ResultsMost of the isolates exhibited multidrug-resistant phenotypes. All the isolates were carbapenem-resistant and among them, 30 carried the class D carbapenemase blaoxa-23 gene while one isolate carried blaoxa-72 gene. MLST results revealed three sequence types, namely ST2, ST699, and ST627. Isolates having ST2 were the most prevalent clone (29/31, 93.5%).ConclusionsThis study shows a nosocomial spread of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii ST2 having blaOXA-23 gene in Saint-George in Lebanon. Monitoring and control measures need to be adopted to avoid the spread of A. baumannii to patients.
Highlights
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen causing various nosocomial infections
A study done by Flamm et al demonstrated that the Mediterranean regions and Europe have the highest frequency of MDR A. baumannii isolates [11]
In South and Southeast Asia, the carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii is a major challenge in public health, where these strains are predominant in nosocomial infections [12]
Summary
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen causing various nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology and the genetic support of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii isolates collected from Saint-Georges Hospital in Lebanon. Acinetobacter baumannii is a glucose non-fermentative, gram-negative, opportunistic pathogen and is one of the leading causes of nosocomial and community infections [1, 2]. Several studies showed the dissemination of CRAB isolates harboring mainly the blaOXA-23-like and belonging to the international clone ST2 [20, 21] at Saint-George Hospital. The aim of the current study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology and the genetic support of multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii isolates collected from patients treated with colistin-carbapenem combination therapy in Saint-George Hospital, Beirut, to investigate if there is a change in the pattern of isolates recovered from patients at the same institution
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