Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jun 2;25(1):786.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-025-11169-x.

Carbapenem-resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii: prevalence, antibiotic resistance profile and carbapenemase genes in clinical and hospital environmental strains

Folasade Muibat Adeyemi  1 , Esther Abiodun Akinlade  2 , Nana Aishat Yusuf-Omoloye  2 , Olaoniye Habeebat Ajigbewu  2 , Alabi Peter Dare  2 , Abideen Akinkunmi Wahab  2 , Omotayo Opemipo Oyedara  3 , Habeeb Salman Isiaka  2 , Alimat Olamide Usamat  2
Affiliations

Carbapenem-resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii: prevalence, antibiotic resistance profile and carbapenemase genes in clinical and hospital environmental strains

Folasade Muibat Adeyemi et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii, a Gram-negative member of the ESKAPE pathogen group, is known to develop resistance to several antibiotics rapidly, and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) is highly implicated in life-threatening infections, especially within hospital settings.

Objectives: This study detected CRAB in clinical and hospital-environmental samples, evaluated the antibiotic resistance patterns and screened for prevalent carbapenemase genes in isolates from a hospital in Southwest Nigeria.

Methods: A total of 150 clinical and hospital environmental samples were analysed using culture-dependent and molecular methods for the detection of Acinetobacter baumannii. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique. Phenotypic screening for carbapenemase was via simplified carbapenem inactivation method (sCIM), and molecular detection of blaKPC type, blaOXA-48-like, blaVIM type, blaNDM-1, blaIMP variants and blaOXA-23-like genes by Polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Altogether, only 29.4% (42/143 isolates) of recovered isolates were identified as A. baumannii, giving a prevalence of 28.0% (42/150 samples), predominantly from sputum. All isolates had the gluconolactonase gene, while 5/42 had the blaOXA-51-like gene. Resistance to meropenem and cefiderocol was 100.0% and 88.1%, respectively, while gentamicin was most effective in vitro (7.1%); 54.8% were multidrug-resistant, and 88.1% (37/42) had MARI ≥ 0.2. Overall, 39/42 (92.9%) isolates had ≥ one or more carbapenemase genes; 61.9% (26/42) had the blaKPC type gene, 59.5% (25/42) had the blaIMP variants while 45.2% had the blaVIM type gene; no strain had the blaNDM-1 or the blaOXA-23-like gene.

Conclusion: This study reports the occurrence of MDR strains, and of blaKPC type, blaIMP variants and blaVIM type carbapenemase genes in A. baumannii isolates from clinical and hospital environmental samples, contributing to the pool of existing data on their occurrence. It also highlights the need for monitoring and continued surveillance of the strains, most especially in the clinical setting.

Keywords: bla IMP; bla KPC; bla VIM type; Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii; sCIM.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Health Planning, Research, and Statistics Department of the Osun State Ministry of Health, Osogbo (OSHREC/PRS/569T/482), and all procedure in the study complied with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (in its most recently amended version). Informed consent was obtained from each participant, and parental informed consent was sought from the parents/guardians of children below 18 years. Consent for publication: Not Applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Demographic details of the study participants
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The distribution of bacterial isolates across the various sample types
Figs. 3
Figs. 3
3a and 3b: The gel image of the molecular identification of A. baumannii isolates showing bands for (a) the gluconolactonase gene at 185 bp; and (b) the blaOXA-51-like gene at 988 bp (L– 100 bp DNA molecular weight standard)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The multiple antibiotic resistance Indices (MARI) of the A. baumannii isolates from clinical and hospital environmental samples
Figs. 5
Figs. 5
5a and 5b: The gel image of the carbapenemase resistance genes in A. baumannii isolates showing bands for (a) the blaIMP variants gene at 183 bp; and (b) blaVIM type (247 bp) and blaKPC type (340 bp) (L– 100 bp DNA molecular weight standard)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The distribution of the identification and carbapenem resistance genes carried by A. baumannii isolates from clinical and hospital environmental samples
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Morris FC, Dexter C, Kostoulias X, Uddin MI, Peleg A. The mechanisms of disease caused by Acinetobacter baumannii. Front Microbiol. 2019;10:1601. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sarshar M, Behzadi P, Scribano D, Palamara AT, Ambrosi C. Acinetobacter baumannii: an ancient commensal with weapons of a pathogen. Pathogens. 2021;10(4):387. 10.3390/pathogens10040387. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Whiteway C, Breine A, Philippe C, Van der Henst C. Acinetobacter baumannii. Trends Microbiol Febr. 2022;30(2). 10.1016/j.tim.2021.11.008 - PubMed
    1. Henriksen SD. Moraxella, Acinetobacter, and the mimeae. Bacteriol Rev. 1973;37:522–61. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Elhosseiny NM, Attia AS. Acinetobacter: an emerging pathogen with a versatile secretome. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2018;7:1–15. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources