Molecular characterization of Acinetobacter spp. and their antibiotic resistance mobilome from clinical isolates collected in Bolivia.

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen causing serious hospital-acquired infections and it has been recently positioned as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organization. It has been described causing outbreaks worlwide and its antimicrobial resistance has been worryingly rising in recent times. A. baumannii usually causes infections such as ventilator associated pneumonia, septicaemia, urinary tract infections, wound infections or meningitis, especially in compromised patient groups such as those admitted to ICU and elderly patients, increasing the mortality rates and hospitalization costs.Other species belonging to the A. baumannii group are being described more often lately as causing infections and sometimes related to antimicrobial resistance determinants.This work is focused in the study of A. baumannii isolates recovered from clinical samples in the two main hospitals of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Hospital Materno-Infantil and Hospital Viedma.The present work is divided in four sections.Sections 1. The epidemiology and antibiotic resistance genes were studied in A. baumannii isolates from a Children Hospital.Section 2. We studied molecular epidemiology by cgMLST and resistome of CRAb isolates from the two main hospitals of the city of Cochabamba. Section 3. Study of the mobile genetic elements encoding antibiotic resistance genes in A. baumannii isolates belonging to different ICs.Section 4. Identification of Acinetobacter seifertii, an A. baumannii group member, isolated from both hospitals in Cochabamba.