[FONT="]Acinetobacter[/FONT]
[FONT="]Acinetobacter infections acquired in the community are very rare and most strains found outside hospitals are sensitive to antibiotics. While [FONT="]Acinetobacter[/FONT] poses few risks to healthy individuals, a few species, particularly [FONT="]Acinetobacter baumannii[/FONT], can cause serious infections - mainly in very ill hospital patients. The most common Acinetobacter infections include pneumonia, bacteraemia (blood stream infection), wound infections, and urinary tract infections. 'Hospital-adapted' strains of [FONT="]Acinetobacter[/FONT] are sometimes resistant to antibiotics and are increasingly difficult to treat.[/FONT]
Treatment: Multi-resistant A. baumannii infections are currently treated with imipenem and an older class of drugs known as polymyxins. These, along with stricter infection-control measures, such as monitored hand washing, have lowered infection rates in some military hospitals.
MDRAB infections are difficult and costly to treat. A study at a public teaching hospital found that the mean total hospital cost of patients who acquired MDRAB was $98,575 higher than that of control patients who had identical burn severity of illness indices.
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