Multidrug-Resistant (APIC)

Volunteering to sign up for the military, a person usually knows the possibility of going to war, as well as, getting hurt severely. The last thing he/she thinks of is being affected by what could be a fatal nosocomial pathogen from the same facilities saving lives. Most nosocomial pathogens are transmitted during an extended hospital stay, by coming in contact with an infected object/person. They have also become multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms, making them a serious threat to human health. The MDR Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab, abbreviated according to the Associations for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC) has found its way into the combat field hospitals during the Iraqi War. From there, soldiers are coming home

Since the year of 2002, the year when soldiers first started to return from Iraq, Ab has become one of the most clinically significant MDR’s. APIC defines MDR Ab as:
Multidrug resistance to more than two of the following drug classes: antipseudomonal cephalosporins (ceftazidime or cefepime), antipseudomonal carbapenems (imipenem or meropenem), ampicillin/sulbactam, fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin or levofloxacin), and aminoglycosides (Gentamicin, tobramycin, or amikacin) (Rosenbaum et al. 7).
The history of Ab starts when “the Dutch microbiologist, Beijerinck, first isolated the bacteria from soil using minimal media enriched with calcium acetate, in 1911” (Aoife et al. 244). From there different characteristic of Ab were noted, such as, “Ab is often found in pairs, does not use oxygen, does not produce nitrites, does not move, and it can be isolated on a MacConkey agar, which is a specific media of petri dish” (Rosenbaum et al. 10). Using a staining method, it is determined that Ab is a gram-negative bacterium, because it does take on the stain. Although, Ab can be difficult to de-stain, making it harder to distinguish between gram-negative or positive (Aoife et al 244). “It also has the ability to survive longer in any environment, even on dry surfaces, because it is resistance to desiccation, or being completely deprived