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Acinetobacter

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Antimicrobial Drug Resistance

Part of the book series: Infectious Disease ((ID))

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Acinetobacter spp. are Gram-negative coccobacilli. Like organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa they are nonfermentative and thus can be readily differentiated by the clinical microbiology laboratory from the Enterobacteriaceae. The most important genomospecies is Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-baumannii complex. Acinetobacter spp. can actually be a normal inhabitant of the human skin (1) – and may occasionally be a contaminant of blood cultures. In a recent survey, 17% of healthy American soldiers in Texas had skin colonization with Acinetobacter (2). Throat carriage may occur in up to 10% of people outside hospital, especially in those with excessive alcohol consumption. It should be noted that such surveys are limited in their geographical scope (3). Acinetobacter nares colonization was not found in healthy U.S. soldiers (4). Typically, Acinetobacter spp. are considered to be nonpathogenic to healthy individuals (5). Hospitalized patients, and those with extensive healthcare contact, may have cutaneous, respiratory and gastrointestinal colonization with the organism. This patient population is also that which is at greatest risk of true infection due to the organisms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Queensland, Centre for Clinical Research, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    David L. Paterson (Professor of Medicine)

  2. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Anton Y. Peleg

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  1. David L. Paterson
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  2. Anton Y. Peleg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Douglas L. Mayers MD

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© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Paterson, D.L., Peleg, A.Y. (2009). Acinetobacter. In: Mayers, D.L. (eds) Antimicrobial Drug Resistance. Infectious Disease. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-595-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-595-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-60327-594-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-595-8

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