Investigation of the Clonal Associations in <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> Strains Isolated from the Respiratory Samples of Patients in a Tertiary Research Hospital

Abstract

Objective: The blaOXA resistance genes and ISAba1 were examined in 70 samples from lower respiratory tract of hospitalized patients. Materials and Methods: Of the 67 isolates obtained, almost half (46.3%) of them were from endotracheal aspirate, and most were collected from the intensive care units of the reanimation (37.3%) and internal medicine (32.8%) units. Results: Three samples from the internal medicine intensive care unit had positive cultures. Of the multidrug resistant (MDR) samples, 70 isolates (>50%) were moderately sensitive, while fewer (10%) were resistant to tigecycline. In contrast, 100% were sensitive to colistin. All strains were found to be positive for blaOXA-23-like and blaOXA-51-like genes, whereas no blaOXA-40-like and blaOXA-58-like genes were detected. The ISAba1 positivity rate was 90.0%. Pattern 5 was mainly identified among the 22 different patterns. Of note, 50% of Pattern 5 was found in the patients of the internal medicine intensive care unit, and a third was associated with ventilator-associated pneumonia. Importantly, the internal medicine unit's equipment was found to be culture positive. Conclusion: Findings obtained from this study suggest that isolates can easily spread through the hospital via isolate cross-contamination caused by health personnel. These contaminating isolates may be able to maintain their presence within the hospital for a long time.