[Nosocomial infection/colonization of the respiratory tract caused by Acinetobacter baumannii in an Internal Medicine ward].

BACKGROUND

To present the epidemiology of the outbreak and the description of patients with infection or colonization of the respiratory tract caused by A. baumannii in an Internal Medicine ward.

METHODS

20 consecutively patients hospitalized in the Internal Medicine ward were studied during 18 months with isolation of multiresistant A. baumanni in respiratory tract specimens with or without clinical signs of infection.

RESULTS

Starting on an index case, that was a patient coming from other hospital with diagnosis of nosocomial Acinetobacter pneumonia, we detected 20 patients. The age of the patients ranged from 48 to 95 years, with a mean of 71.4 years. Eighty percent were males. The clinical features were similar: advanced age, with chronic diseases (35 percent diabetics, 45 percent with chronic lung diseases), and use of broad-spectrum antibiotics agents, fundamentally third generation cephalosporin (70 percent), clarithromycin (55 percent) and quinolones (30 percent). 75 percent of patients were in the same ward. Eight (40 percent) of the patients with chronic lung diseases were subjects with COPD, two with asthma and chronic glucocorticoids treatment, and one with a sleep apnea. In four cases the isolation was considered a colonization. The mean stay was 26.15 days, and the mortality 40 percent.

CONCLUSIONS

The nosocomial infection caused by Acinetobacter baumannii is responsible of a high morbi-mortality between the patients hospitalized in an Internal Medicine ward, and produce an increase in length of stay. It is necessary a combination of control measures to prevent the transmission in the hospital and the outbreak of new multiresistant strains.