An Outbreak of Acinetobacter baumanii sepsis in a Neonatal Intensive Care unit

Mudshingkar Swati; Sonawane Shweta; Kongre Vaishali; Bhardwaj Renu; Khadse Sandhya

Volume : VII, Issue : VIII, August - 2017

An Outbreak of Acinetobacter baumanii sepsis in a Neonatal Intensive Care unit

Mudshingkar Swati, Sonawane Shweta, Kongre Vaishali, Bhardwaj Renu, Khadse Sandhya

Abstract :

Background– Acinetobacter species are ubiquitous in hospital environment. Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter spp. are emerging as a cause of nosocomial infections. An outeak was suspected when Acinetobacter spp was isolated from blood cultures of 8 babies admitted in NICU. An investigation was carried out to identify the source.

Method– BACTEC blood cultures were collected from 14 babies with suspected sepsis. Positive bottles were plated on Blood Agar & MacConkey agar and isolates were identified. To identify the source of infection, swabs were collected from the infected babies to look for colonization. Samples were also collected from medicine trolleys, incubators, washbasin, and hands of health care workers in an effort to look for the source. They were plated on Acinetobacter Chrome agar. Settle plates were kept at a distance of 1 ft,2 ft and 3 ft from infected babies for ½ an hour. All isolates were confirmed by standard methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility was done as per CLSI guidelines.

Results– A total of 14 blood samples were received from NICU in the second week of Jan’16. Eight of the blood cultures grew Acinetobacter baumanii. They were also isolated from a medicine trolley, HCW’s hand, and an incubator. One baby was colonized with Acinetobacter and the same bacteria was grown on an air settle plate also. Cohorting of the babies was done. NICU was asked to clean extensively with 1 % hypochlorite solution. Handwashing was enforced. The outeak was then aborted.

Conclusion : This study highlights the role of environment in the spread of nosocomial Acinetobacter infections and the importance of supervised infection control measures to prevent such infections.