Community-acquired Acinetobacter meningitis in adults

Community-acquired Acinetobacter meningitis in adults is an extremely ra re infection of the central nervous system (CNS). Here we report one adult ca se of this rare CNS infection and review the clinical data of another seven cases reported in the English language literature. In total, eight patient s (six men and two women) aged between 19 and 63 years were studied. The ca usative pathogen in our patient was Acinetobacter baumannii; in the other r eported cases they were most likely Acinetobacter Iwoffii, Acinetobacter jo hnsonii, Acinetobacter junii, a genomic species 3 or 6, No underlying disea se was found in seven of the eight cases and six of the eight patients acqu ired the infections before the age of 30 years. Fever and consciousness dis turbance were the most common clinical manifestations. Waterhouse-Friderich sen syndrome (WFS) was found in two cases. Unlike the Acinetobacter strains found in nosocomial infections, the strain of Acinetobacter meningitis in the community-acquired case did not show multiple antibiotic resistance. Mo st adult patients with community-acquired Acinetobacter meningitis can be s aved by timely therapy with appropriate antibiotics before deterioration of the systemic condition and impairment of consciousness.