Is Acinetobacter becoming resistant to all antibiotics?
Whilst resistance to antibiotics is not a new phenomenon for Acinetobacter, what is new is that since 2000 some strains have begun to develop resistance to the last effective group of active drugs called carbapenems. The Agency is aware of three such strains in the UK; The South East Clone, OXA-23 clone 1 and OXA-23 clone 2 of Acinetobacter baumannii, which have caused illness in patients. There is still one type of drug (polymyxin) that is highly active in the laboratory, however this is an old antibiotic which is not routinely used and the HPA is currently studying how effective it really is in the treatment of Acinetobacter infections.
