Clonal comparison of Acinetobacter strains isolated from intensive care patients and the intensive care unit environment

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most commonly encountered microorganisms in nosocomial infections. It is thought that strains found in the environment can be a source for contamination of patients by Acinetobacter strains that are resistant to environmental conditions. This study was carried out to compare Acinetobacter strains isolated from a variety of nonviable environments and from patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and to explore whether environmental areas may be a source for bacterial contamination. Materials and methods: We studied A. baumannii strains isolated from ICU patients. When A. baumannii was isolated from the clinical sample of a patient, swab samples were collected from various areas in the ICU. VITEK 2 (bioMérieux, France) was used for the identification of A. baumannii strains and for antibiotic sensitivity tests. DNA fingerprinting analysis was performed with the repetitive sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR) method using a DiversiLab device (bioMérieux). Results: During the study, a total of 100 A. baumannii strains including 92 samples from 61 patients and 8 samples from the environment were isolated. All of the isolated strains were found to have multiresistance to antibiotics. DNA fingerprinting results showed that 7 of the 8 strains isolated from the environment were identical to many strains isolated from the patients. The greatest similarity between samples was found for 1 A. baumannii strain isolated from a computer keyboard, which was identical to the bacterium isolated from 17 other samples. Conclusion: A high level of similarity was found between strains isolated from the environment and patients, suggesting deficiencies in implementation of infection control measures.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Key words: Acinetobacter baumannii, source, rep-PCR, nosocomial infection

Clonal comparison of Acinetobacter strains isolated from intensive care patients and the intensive care unit environment

Keywords:

Key words: Acinetobacter baumannii, source, rep-PCR, nosocomial infection,

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