Clonal evolution and antimicrobial resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from Korean hospitals over the last decade.

The wide-spread of drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is a global health problem. This study investigated the clonal distribution and antimicrobial resistance of 167 A. baumannii isolates from two Korean university hospitals from 2009 to 2019 by analyzing the sequence types (STs), antimicrobial resistance, and resistance determinants of carbapenems and aminoglycosides.

Clonal change of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates in a Korean hospital.

The expansion of specific carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) clones is a global concern due to its therapeutic difficulty and epidemicity. To understand the prevalence of CRAB isolates in a Korean hospital, we investigated the epidemiological characteristics of 96 CRAB isolates between 2016 and 2018, including the sequence types (STs), antimicrobial susceptibility, and genetic background of resistance to carbapenems and aminoglycosides. Six STs were identified using the Oxford multilocus sequence typing scheme; ST191 (n = 8), ST208 (n = 12), ST229 (n = 11), and ST369 (n = 21) were previously identified clones in the study hospital, whereas gpi variants of ST208, ST451 (n = 34) and ST784 (n = 10), were emerging clones.