Objective To trace the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii in intensive care units (ICUs) before and after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China. Methods A baumannii strains were collected between July and October 2007 from control patients and in May 2008 from survivors of the Sichuan earthquake. The multidrug resistance proflie of A baumannii was observed. The DiversiLab semi-automated rep-PCR system was used to determine the clonal relatedness of A baumannii strains; testing for antimicrobial susceptibility was performed using automated instruments. Results A total of 28 A baumannii strains were isolated, 13 of which had been isolated from control patients; 15 strains were isolated from earthquake survivors. Regardless of patient group, 2 clonal groups were observed in these isolates. The results demonstrate that most of the A baumannii isolates recovered from the earthquake survivors were similar to those obtained from the control patients. This suggests that A baumannii species, particularly those of clonal groups A and B (most of which are multidrug-resistant [MDR]), have been well established in our ICU; that earthquake survivors probably acquired A baumannii in the hospital setting; and that A baumannii recovered from earthquake survivors may bring different genetic profiles into contact with local isolates. Conclusions Our findings highlight the need for stronger infectioncontrol measures and emphasize the importance of rapid strain typing for monitoring pathogens such as A baumannii that are frequently associated with nosocomial infections. * MDR : multidrug-resistant ICU : intensive care unit rep-PCR : repetitive extragenetic palindromic sequence-based polymerase chain reaction CLSI : Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)