Assessing the Burden of Acinetobacter baumannii in Maryland: A Statewide Cross-Sectional Period Prevalence Survey

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an important healthcare-associated pathogen in both acute care and long-term care (LTC) settings,1–3 particularly among critically ill patients and those receiving mechanical ventilation.4,5 Outbreaks have been reported nationally and globally,6 and this pathogen is well known in Maryland.2,7–9 Despite its notoriety, the true burden of A. baumannii is unknown. In this report, we describe a statewide cross-sectional prevalence survey where surveillance sputum and perianal cultures were obtained from mechanically ventilated patients residing in all healthcare settings (acute care and LTC) to determine the prevalence of A. baumannii in Maryland. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this magnitude to assess the prevalence of A. baumannii, particularly across healthcare settings. Furthermore, collecting surveillance cultures (instead of clinical cultures alone) addresses both colonization and infection, which provides a better estimate of the actual burden and can therefore improve statewide prevention and control efforts.