Antimicrobial Resistance of Acinetobacter spp. Isolated from Pus Specimens from AL-Shifa Hospital, Gaza, Palestine.

Acinetobacter spp. is responsible for an increasing number of opportunistic, nosocomial infections. It also gained the reputation of being one of the most efficient pathogens in combating antimicrobials. Antimicrobial resistance studies are world-wide necessity to assist local physicians in prescribing empirical therapy. In this study, pus samples collected on swabs or aspirated in syringes from patients admitted to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City were plated on MacConkey agar and Blood agar plates. Oxidase negative, non-glucose fermenter gram negative bacilli were considered as presumptive Acinetobacter spp. isolates. A total of 152 strains of Acinetobacter spp. were isolated. Antibiogram results to 10 antimicrobials, showed high resistance to most of the commonly used drugs. The isolates showed almost complete resistance to cephalosporins (cephalexine, 98%, cefuroxime, 98.2% cefotaxime, 93.2%, ceftazidime, 87.5%, ceftriaxone, 93.3% cefaclor, 97.4%), while lower rates of resistance were shown against the aminoglycosides (amikacin, 68.3% and gentamicin, 81.3%). The most effective antimicrobial drug as shown by the results of this study was doxycycline with the lowest resistance rate (22.1%). The findings of this study should be considered alarming and actions must be taken to minimize both the risk of nosocomial infections by this pathogen and to search for alternative antimicrobials