Acinetobacter Baumannii: Factors Involved in its High Adaptability to Adverse Environmental Conditions

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as one of the WHO most dangerous pathogens hit list and considered a priority of the Public Health Services worldwide It can cause a wide range of opportunistic infections typically involving ventilator associated pneumonia septicaemia and surgical wound infections mainly in immunocompromised patients Two main features contribute to the great interest of A baumannii over the other related species first the ability of clinical isolates to develop multidrug resistance acquired by either mutations or genetic elements such as plasmids transposons or resistant islands and second the ability to colonize almost any surface and survive in the environment making it very difficult to eradicate from clinical settings The emergence of nosocomial and community acquired infections due to Acinetobacter is mainly a result of high adaptability to adverse environmental conditions and the ability to persist for months in dry and harsh environments They are able to survive exposure to commonly used disinfectants such as chlorhexidine gluconate and phenols and are able to survive much better compared with other gram negatives on fingertips or on dry surfaces thus facilitating its spread via hospital personnel infrastructure and medical devices To add to this the detection of MDR isolates is on the increase and although the search for novel antibiotics remains a major concern a more urgent priority must be to investigate novel targets such as inhibitors of mechanisms of persistence in order to eradicate A baumannii from the nosocomial environment