Survival of Acinetobacter baumannii on bed rails during an outbreak and during sporadic cases

Genotypic methods showed Acinetobacter baumannii biotype 9 genotype I to be the epidemic strain on an outbreak in an intensive care unit (ICU) which l asted from January to April of 1996. A cohort was established during March in which hospital personnel were assigned exclusively to A. baumannii infec ted or colonized patients. New patients mere not admitted to the ICU until the last infected patient was discharged. However, strain I was isolated du ring April and vectors other than human carriage were suspected. The ICU co mprised four sections; patients and beds were moved within them according t he severity of diseases. Strain I was isolated from a bed rail nine days af ter the infected patient was discharged. This dry vector may explain the tr ansmission of the epidemic strain between sections. The following July, fou r new infected patients were identified and three different strains, includ ing the epidemic one, were recovered. The two other strains were also isola ted from a bed rail. Although this environmental source does not explain by itself the transmission of an epidemic strain, it illustrates that dry vec tors can be secondary reservoirs where A. baumannii can survive.