Salma Y Mukhtar^1,, Mohamed M Hassan², Isam M Elkhidir³

Multidrug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter spp. has emerged as an important cause of nosocomial infections with increased morbidity and mortality, evidently frequent in intensive care unit (ICU). The unique environment of ICU, artificial ventilation and other invasive procedures, exposure to antibiotics, colonization pressure, and underlying illness facilitate the spread of this species in ICU. Microbiological culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing was considered as one of the proper methods to assess the magnitude of this problem This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profile of Acinetobacter spp. in selective hospital’s intensive care units of Khartoum state, Sudan. A total of 980 different types of samples were processed by routine microbiological investigation and Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the Acinetobacter isolates was performed by the disk diffusion method as recommended by Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute CLSI. Samples were then confirmed as Acinetobacter spp. by using PCR. As a result, consecutive non duplicate 77 Acinetobacter sp. were isolated out of a total 340 pathogenic Gram negative isolates (22.6 % prevalence). Cephalosporins, aminoglycoside, fluoroquinolones and carbapenems are becoming completely ineffective while colistin was the only effective choice.

Acinetobacter spp., ICU, Antimicrobial resistance, PCR