Microbe Profile: Acinetobacter baumannii: persist and resist

Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen associated with a wide variety of healthcare-associated infections, including ventilator-associated pneumonia, urinary tract infections, bacteraemia and wound infections. It adopts a ‘persist and resist’ pathogenic strategy to establish infection in the host. It can form robust biofilms and survive in a desiccated state for months at a time, driving its persistence in the hospital-built environment. It also has a remarkable capacity to rapidly develop antimicrobial resistance, with >90% of contemporary clinical isolates being multidrug-resistant. This combination of pathogenic traits has caused A. baumannii to emerge as a major clinical challenge.