Pathogenicity,resistance attributes and clinical impact of Acinetobacter baumannii complex infections in ICU settings to understand challenges and opportunities for prevention.

Acinetobacter baumannii complex is the common cause of nosocomial Bloodstream infections (BSI) in the ICUs with the crude mortality rates ranging from 20-60% . Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAb) has been regarded as a serious threat as it accounted for an estimated annual death of 500 and an estimated number of 7300 cases annually in the US. The World Health Organization has regarded Carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) as critical and has been given number 1 priority in the pathogen list for Research and development of new antibiotics in 2017.

Method: Patients with A. baumannii bacteremia will be followed prospectively through hospital discharge or death. Patients’ demographic, clinical, and laboratory data will be collected. This would provide the epidemiological and antimicrobial susceptibility data for Acinetobacter bacteremia over a period of 3 years. Clinical manifestations, Risk factors for Acinetobacter bacteremia will also be assessed.  Molecular Characterization of Resistance determinants and Detection of Virulence factors will be done on the clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumanniicomplex collected and this would demonstatre the resistance pattern and the most prevalent drug resistant Acinetobacter in our setting.

Relevance of the study: A baumannii complex is emerging as a predominantcause of nosocomial bloodstream infections. Throughout the globe, they are being held responsible to be the most common adverse effect jeopardizing the patients’ welbeing. Since A. baumannii complex has the propensity to colonize and infect debilitated patients, it is imperative to understand the burden and clinical impact on the patient outcome. Novel data on the virulence attributes and the resistance determinants could further pave way in the development of potential targets for antimicrobial agents.