Prevalence of Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter species in pediatric patients in AL Najaf Province

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii is the cause of opportunistic nosocomial infection and one of the six major multidrug-resistant bacteria in hospitals worldwide. Objectives: Blood stream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia are the most frequent diseases brought on by this human bacteria, and mortality can reach 35%. Methodology: In this study, 77 blood and urine samples were collected from children who had been receiving treatment for Acinetobacter infection at AL-Zahra teaching hospital in Al-Najaf, Iraq, for two years. In contrast to the 24 Acinetobacter spp. recovered in 2021–2022, only 53 Acinetobacter spp. were found in 2020–2021. Results: The findings showed that Acinetobacter isolates were divided into the following species: In 2020–2021, Acinetobacter spp. cause 9.43% of the isolates, 1.8% of the isolates were Acinetobacter lwoffii, and 88.6% of the population was Acinetobacter baumannii. The isolates of Acinetobacter spp. that were used in this study were resistant to a variety of antibiotics, including CIP (73.3%), CAZ (89.13%), MEM (68.2%), CTX (89.4%), IPM (83.3%), LEV (75%), TOB (62.5%), and SXT (70.27%). This is in contrast to the isolates that were collected in 2020–2021, which had higher resistance percentages toCIP(57. 8%), CAZ (83.3%), MEM (45.45%), CTX (90.90%), IPM (44.44%), LEV (41.6%), TOB (20%), SXT (55.5%) for isolates that collected in 2021-2022. Conclusions Acinetobacter baumanni isolates from blood and urine. have been recognized as an important pathogen that causes various infection in Najaf City. High antibacterial agent’s resistance among Acinetobacter spp. and MAR index was a concern among these isolates. There are increasing in the antibiotic resistance of Acinetobacter spp for COL, TOD, TIG and POLB in 2021-2022 period