The COVID-19 Pandemic Sparked Off a Large-Scale Outbreak of Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii from the Endemic Strains at an Italian Hospital.

ABSTRACT: Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial pathogen that poses a serious threat due to the rise of incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains. During the COVID-19 pandemic, MDR A. baumannii clones have caused several outbreaks worldwide. Here, we describe a detailed investigation of an MDR A. baumannii outbreak that occurred at Policlinico San Matteo (Pavia, Italy). A total of 96 A. baumannii strains, isolated between January and July 2020 from 41 inpatients (both SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative) in different wards, were characterized by phenotypic and genomic analyses combining Illumina and Nanopore sequencing. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that all isolates were resistant to carbapenems, and the sequence analysis attributed this to the carbapenemase gene bla_OXA

SUBMITTER: Petazzoni G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10101080 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature