MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF SPECIES FROM Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus COMPLEX IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS FROM A MATERNAL CHILD REFERENCE HOSPITAL IN BELEM-PARA

Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex is emerging as one of the most common causes of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) in intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide and recent studies show that the genus Acinetobacter is the second most frequent bacterial agent presents in the hands of health professionals and in the surfaces of furniture and hospital equipment. In this way, 16 samples were collected, being six samples from hands of health professionals and 10 from surfaces of furniture and hospital equipments of ICUs from a maternal child reference hospital of Belem-Para, Brasil. The samples were collected with a swab moistened with buffer saline and inoculated with BHI agar (Brain Heart Infusion), the antimicrobial resistance profile was performed by VITEK-II, where the isolates were identified as Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex, and then, the isolates were sent for molecular analysis by rpoB nucleotide sequencing. Among the 16 isolates, 100% (16/16) were resistant to ampicillin, cefoxitin, cefuroxime and cefuroxime axetil, followed by 18.75% (03/16) to ampicillin + sulbactam, ciprofloxacin and meropenem. The most frequent phenotype of antimicrobial resistance was AMP-CXM-CXA-CFO observed in 43.7% of the isolates of professional hands (7) and in 37.5% of the isolates of environmental surfaces (6), followed by AMP-SAM-CXM-CXA-CFO-CAZ-CRO-CPM-IMP-MPM-GEN-CIP and AMP-SAM-CXM-CXA-CFO-CAZ-CRO-CPM-IMP-MPM-AMI-GEN-CIP observed in both isolates from surfaces of furniture (01/16 – 12.5% each). The rpoB gene identified 11 isolates (11/16 – 68.75%) as A. baumannii and five (05/16 – 31.25%) as A. nosocomialis, where four samples of A. baumannii (04/11- 36.3 %) and two of A. nosocomialis (02/05 – 40%) were from hands of health professionals, three samples of A. nosocomialis (03/05 – 60%) and seven samples of A. baumannii (07/11 – 63.7%) were from surfaces of furniture and hospital equipments. Also, three samples (03/11 – 27.2%) of A. baumannii isolate from surfaces of furniture and hospital equipment displayed multi-drug resistance, including carpabenems. The present study showed the distribution of the bacterium genus Acinetobacter spp, where the species A. baumannii and A. nosocomialis were find and the major factors of dissemination and persistence of resistant bacteria in hospitals may be directly related to the lack or low control of hand hygiene of health professionals and correct sterilization of hospital equipments.