Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistance Pattern of Acinetobacter Species Isolated from Al-Zahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran.

Background: Acinetobacter species (spp.) have unique ability to survive in the hospital environments for long periods. This feature increases the rate of acquisition of infection of hospitalized patients by this high-resistant bacterium. The purpose of this study was determination of prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of Acinetobacter spp. isolated from Alzahra hospital, Isfahan, Iran. Methods: During a three-month period, using the swab method, 40 samples were taken from different parts of the intensive care unit (ICU) and surgery wards of the hospital. All samples were examined for the presence of Acinetobacter spp. After isolation, Acinetobacter spp. were identified using several phenotypic and biochemical tests. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done by disk diffusion method according to CLSI-2011 (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) guidelines. Findings: From 40 swab samples, 202 isolates were obtained that 109 (53.96%) were belonging to gram positive bacilli and coccoci and 93 (46.03%) were gram negative. In the culture of 21 samples (52.5%) Acinetobacter spp. was grown. Most of the isolates were obtained from sink and bed of patients' room, respectively. All of isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR) and 18 isolates (85.71%) were extensively drug resistant (XDR) because of their resistance to carbapenems. Conclusion: Regard increasing rate of health-care associated infections (HAI) caused by Acinetobacter spp. and spreading of distribution of the high-resistance strains in the hospital environments, infection control procedures seems to be necessary to eliminate potential sources of infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]