Investigation of a nosocomial outbreak of imipenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii producing the OXA-23 β-lactamase in Korea

We investigated an outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii in an intensive care unit and in the surgery, medicine, neurology, and urology wards of the Kosin University Gospel Hospital in Busan, Korea. The outbreak involved 36 cases of infection by A. baumannii producing the OXA-23 β-lactamase over an 8-month period and was caused by a single pulsed-field gel electrophoresis clone. The epidemic isolates were characterized by a modified cloverleaf synergy test. Isoelectric focusing of crude bacterial extracts detected one nitrocefin-positive band with a pI value of 6.65. PCR amplification and characterization of the amplicons by direct sequencing indicated that the epidemic isolates carried a bla_OXA-23 determinant. The epidemic isolates were characterized by a multidrug resistance phenotype that remained unchanged over the outbreak, including penicillins, cephamycins, extended-spectrum cephalosporins, carbapenems, monobactams, and aminoglycosides. This study shows that the bla_OXA-23 resistance determinant may become an emerging therapeutic problem.